Acer will ship 40,000 notebooks by railroad across Chongqing, China and Duisburg, Germany. The shipments are expected to arrive in Europe in two weeks.

The trip will mark the first railroad crossing from China to Europe, while opening up a brand new logistics system for the notebook industry.

Among notebook makers, Quanta Computer has been the most aggressive player in expanding capacity in Chongqing. Of Quanta's 4.5-5 million notebook shipments each month, 1.5-1.6 million units are shipped from the company's Chongqing plants.

Compal Electronics president Ray Chen pointed out that the opening of the railroad will encourage notebook players to invest in western China, while notebook shipment times can be reduced significantly from 35-40 days to only two weeks, helping players to better manage their inventory.

Currently, 90% of notebook supplies are from China and are shipped either through marine or air routes. For Europe, most notebook makers in Chongqing transport products to harbors in China's coastal areas then ship to Europe by sea, but with Acer starting to ship products by rail, more brand vendors are expected to follow suit in the future.

However, initially the route will only operate one round trip every 1-2 weeks, but service will increase to one trip per day in the future as the logistics system matures. Although travel time is the major attraction of the route, high cost and uncontrollable temperatures and humidity, which could impact the quality of the products, during travel may become challenges.

Source:digitimes