DHL has announced plans to expand its multimodal services in China and North Asia.

A new weekly scheduled block train service is being introduced from Suzhou, along the trans-Siberian North Corridor, to DHL's intermodal hub in Poland.

This will enable deliveries to be made in half the time of ocean freight and at just a sixth of the cost of air freight, offering an average transit time of 14 days to Warsaw from Suzhou.

It will complement the existing daily single wagon service from Shanghai to Europe, along with the weekly block train service from Chengdu to Europe along China's West Corridor rail line through Kazakhstan to Europe.

Roger Crook, chief executive officer of DHL Global Forwarding's freight division, said: "Suzhou is a strategic departure point for Jiangsu and it is a huge benefit for our customers to have direct access to inter-continental rail links, rather than having to go via Chengdu."

The firm also said it plans to connect neighbouring countries to its North Asia network using ferry services between China, Japan and Korea.