The Irkeshtam Port in Wuqia, Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the westernmost port of the country, has recorded a maximum of 1,243 vehicles passing daily, up 20.4 percent from the previous daily peak since it launched a trial of 24/7 clearance operations on June 1, a representative of the port’s management committee told the Global Times on Monday.

As China’s westernmost land port, Irkeshtam serves as a critical gateway to Kyrgyzstan and a trade hub for Central and West Asia, with rising cross-border activity and robust transport demand. The Irkeshtam Port launched a trial of 24-hour freight clearance operations on June 1, making it the second land port in the region and the first in southern Xinjiang to adopt such a system, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

This move is aimed at enhancing trade logistics between China and Central Asia, according to Xinhua, which cited the local immigration inspection station.

The port directly connects to logistics hubs such as Kyrgyzstan’s southern province of Osh and further west to Andijan in Uzbekistan, which are important nodes along the Belt and Road Initiative. It is also a crucial passage for the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan multimodal transportation channel.

Yang Wei, director of the port’s management committee, told the Global Times that since the implementation of the 24/7 freight clearance system, the port’s customs clearance efficiency has significantly improved.

“Vehicles only need an average of three minutes to complete the inspection process. The daily number of vehicles passing through has more than doubled to exceed 1,000,” Yang Wei said.

In the first month of the trial run of 24/7 operation, the port saw the flow of both travelers and vehicles exceed 100,000, Yang Wei said. “In 2024, the port handled 2 million tons of cargo. So far this year, the import and export freight volume has surpassed 1 million tons, and it’s expected to reach an annual throughput of 3.5 million tons.”

“To support the round-the-clock operations, we optimized staffing through shift rotations and implemented ‘on-arrival inspection’ for freight vehicles, which strikes a balance between security and efficiency,” Yang Yang, a local customs official, told the Global Times.

“With the implementation of round-the-clock freight operations, the transportation of coal imported from Kyrgyzstan increased from one round trip per day to three round trips every two days, which has significantly reduced import costs,” said a representative of Xinjiang Zhongyuan Nanjiang Coal Storage and Distribution Co, a local news outlet reported.

“With the 24-hour clearance, I can make 15 trips a month, and my income has increased by 40 percent,” a Kyrgyzstan driver told the Global Times at the port.
Source: Global Times