Kang Yingfeng, deputy general manager of China Railway International Multimodal Transportation, said there had been a significant increase in inquiries about the China-Europe freight train service since the beginning of this year. CRIMT is the national operator of the China-Europe freight train service and a subsidiary of China Railway Container Transport.

"Chinese, European and American customers, as well as large international logistics companies such as DHL and Kuehne+Nagel, have shown strong interest in the new route passing the transcontinental maritime routes, attracting freight from China to Georgia, Turkiye, and Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Southern Europe," he told China Daily in a recent interview.

Now Ding's company has used the route as a regular choice for transporting ketchup.

Fu Cong, China's former ambassador to the European Union, called the freight service "a flagship project of China-EU Belt and Road cooperation that has stood out as a land-based alternative that provides rapid, stable and reliable solutions to the massive flow of goods between both sides" amid "the complex and turbulent geopolitical situation, especially since the outbreak of the Red Sea crisis".

He made the remarks in March in a signed article published on Euractiv, a European news website focused on EU policy issues. "It is fair to say that the China-Europe Railway Express has become a lifeline for China-EU trade at this critical moment," he said.