OREANDA-NEWS. UPS (NYSE: UPS) announced today it has added a Less-than-Container Load (LCL) option for China-to-Europe rail shipments. The service is available from Zhengzhou to Hamburg and becomes part of the UPS Preferred® multimodal freight services portfolio. UPS established a Full Container Load (FCL) solution for China-to-Europe in June 2014.

The UPS Preferred portfolio combines air, rail, ocean and/or ground transportation to help companies balance supply chain speed and costs to meet customer needs.

The largest global trade partners in the last 10 years, China and the European Union’s trade growth was valued at more than $600 billion? in 2014 and is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2020. UPS’s expansion of its rail product portfolio in China reflects the company’s commitment to infrastructure developments along the Silk Road Economic Belt. This expansion coincides with the transformation of China’s manufacturing industry from a low-cost and high-volume model to a more innovative, quality-focused and customer-centric approach.

“Our UPS Preferred® LCL service gives customers more transportation options to deliver on growing demand on one of the world’s largest and busiest trade lanes,” said Steve Flowers, president of UPS global freight forwarding. “Companies don’t have to choose between speed and cost and can realize both.”

Customers who have taken advantage of UPS’s China-to-Europe FCL rail service have experienced cost savings of up to 65 percent versus air freight and time savings of nearly 40 percent compared to traditional FCL ocean service on the same routes.* In addition to providing faster and more economical options to customers, these rail options also are a much more environmentally friendly alternative to air and ocean freight, consuming less energy and producing lower carbon emissions.

Full Container Load solutions are offered from Chengdu to Lodz, Poland, and from Zhengzhou to Hamburg, Germany. Combining the rail movement with origin/destination trucking networks enables UPS to provide service to customers throughout China and Europe.

The weekly door-to-door service is supported by UPS tracking technology that delivers full visibility and real-time updates regarding shipment progress via both UPS.com tracking and the use of GPS technology. It also includes security measures and temperature-control options.