Permitted Commodities on China-Europe Railway: What Ships

Published June 28, 2023 · Sino-Euro Railway · Updated October 8, 2026

What your product is made of determines whether it can move on the China-Europe Railway Express at all. This guide explains the three acceptance categories — general cargo, pre-approval cargo, and cargo we currently do not carry — and what each requires before booking.

Two different layers of "permitted"

Before the categories, one distinction matters throughout:

• Legal and regulatory requirements — what Chinese export law, railway transport rules, transit-country rules and EU import law allow. These come from authorities and are non-negotiable.
• Carrier and operator acceptance policy — what the train operators and we as a forwarder will actually book. Policy is often stricter than the law (for commercial, safety or insurance reasons), and it can change with season and capacity. Our policy is ours alone — other providers may accept or refuse different goods.

A product can be perfectly legal to export and still not be accepted for rail booking. Always check acceptance before the cargo-ready date, not after the container is gated in.

Category 1: General cargo — normally eligible, subject to checks

The large majority of westbound volume is ordinary general merchandise:

• Electronics and electrical appliances (without built-in batteries — see Category 3)
• Machinery and industrial equipment
• Auto parts
• Textiles, garments and footwear
• Furniture and household goods
• Consumer goods, toys, lighting, hardware

Belonging to one of these categories does not by itself prove a product can be carried. General cargo is normally eligible to apply for carriage, but every booking is still checked against the exact product name, the routing, the weight, the packaging and the restrictions in force on that lane at that time.

What you need before booking: the standard document set — commercial invoice, packing list, and a clear commodity description (Chinese and English names, HS code if available, material composition). Booking is then confirmed against space, schedule and the checks above.

Note on weight: rail containers are subject to weight limits that vary by container type and lane. If your cargo is dense (metal, stone, machinery), confirm the applicable limit at booking rather than assuming.

Category 2: Pre-approval cargo — accepted only after operator review

Some commodities can be carried, but only after the train operator reviews and approves them case by case. The main group is chemicals and chemical products:

• Liquid and powder chemicals
• Coatings, adhesives, cleaning agents
• Industrial raw materials of chemical composition
• Any product whose MSDS shows hazards, even if not a regulated dangerous good

What you need before booking: exact requirements depend on the selected operator — confirm with us before preparing documents. Typically the review involves some or all of the following:

1. MSDS / SDS (Material Safety Data Sheet), in the language(s) the operator requires.
2. 货物运输条件鉴定书 — a transportation-condition appraisal report issued by an accredited Chinese testing institute. The appraisal conclusion must be applicable to rail transport specifically; a report issued for sea or air transport does not substitute for it.
3. Exact chemical composition and packaging details.

Confirmation condition: booking is only confirmed after the operator approves the documents. Approval is per-product and per-operator; a chemical accepted on one corridor is not automatically accepted on another. We cannot promise acceptance — only that we will submit and chase the approval promptly.

Category 3: Currently not accepted under our policy

Under our current acceptance policy, we do not carry the following on China–Europe rail:

• Dangerous goods as classified in the appraisal report (explosives, gases, flammable liquids and solids, oxidisers, toxics, corrosives etc.).
• Products containing batteries of any kind — lithium or otherwise, installed or packed with the equipment, large or small.
• One exception — new energy vehicles (NEVs): under a notice issued by the Chinese railway regulator, new energy vehicles transported as cargo and meeting the notice's conditions are not administered as dangerous goods for rail transport; see the National Railway Administration of China notice (Chinese). In practice, international NEV shipments still require case-by-case confirmation with the carrying operator — please contact us before booking to confirm the required materials and the applicable terminals for your shipment.
• Goods refused by law or sanction regimes (dual-use items to restricted destinations, embargoed goods), which are excluded as a matter of law rather than policy.

Why the battery restriction? It describes our company's current acceptance policy, not a universal legal ban — other operators' policies may differ, and other modes or future policy changes may differ too. If your product contains even a small installed battery (a power tool, a device with a backup cell, a toy), treat it as Category 3 until confirmed otherwise, and ask us before booking. Do not rely on a supplier's assurance that "it shipped before" — acceptance rules are checked at booking and at the terminal, and a refused container after gate-in is an expensive problem.

Boundary cases and common questions

A few situations come up repeatedly:

• Liquids and pastes that are not chemicals (foodstuffs, cosmetics ingredients): usually Category 1 or 2 depending on composition — send the MSDS or ingredient list and we will classify.
• Machinery with residual fluids (oil in a gearbox, fuel traces): operators may require the equipment drained and certified clean before loading; flag this early.
• Powders of any kind: expect operator review regardless of hazard class, because powders attract additional screening on the corridor.
• Dual-use or export-controlled items: even where carriage is physically possible, export-control law may prohibit the shipment; this is a legal question, not a booking question, and it is the shipper's responsibility.

Uncertain which category your product is in?

Send us the product name (Chinese and English), HS code if known, composition and the MSDS if one exists. We will confirm the category and, where needed, submit for operator pre-approval — before you commit to a cargo-ready date. Start via our quote page.

Under our company's current acceptance policy, battery-powered or battery-containing products other than new energy vehicles (NEVs), and dangerous goods, are not accepted. NEVs require shipment-by-shipment review of the vehicle, documents, route and carrying operator's conditions before we confirm acceptance. Chemical products require a safety appraisal report and a separate acceptance review. This is our company policy; regulations and other operators' policies do not establish our ability to carry a shipment.