QINGDAO -- The China-SCO Local Economic and Trade Cooperation Demonstration Area (SCODA) located in east China's Qingdao handled 775 China-Europe freight trains in the first 10 months of 2023, up 25 percent year on year, according to the Qingdao Customs.

The number of China-Europe freight trains that arrived and departed from SCODA throughout the 10-month period reached the total volume of last year, with 64,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of containers transported, said customs.
So far, SCODA operates 31 international and domestic freight train routes on a regular basis, reaching 54 cities in 23 countries within the frameworks of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
First proposed in June 2018, SCODA is becoming an important link in international industrial, supply and trade chains, boosting economic and trade cooperation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) countries.