For today’s episode of “Crossing the Sea,” we follow the "Tianxiuhe" cargo ship to Chongqing Guoyuan Bonded Logistics Center, another major stop for the New Western Land-Sea Corridor.
On September 23rd, Hainan’s Yangpu Port also witnessed the operation of an international ocean container route from the Hainan Free Trade Port to Africa, the third of its kind in the island province.
The route is opened and operated by COSCO SHIPPING Lines. A total of two 3,500-box container ships have been put into operation, departing once every two weeks. The route covers Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen, Shekou, Guangzhou Nansha, Hainan Yangpu, Singapore, Ghana’s Tema, Nigeria’s Onne, Benin’s Cotonou, Cote d'Ivoire’s Abidjan, Sri Lanka’s Colombo, Malaysia’s Klang and others, which can transport goods including ore, sand and timber from West Africa.
Chen Li, Department General Manager of Hainan Harbor and Shipping Holding Co., Ltd. Introduced, “We opened the intercontinental route from Yangpu to Australia in 2020, serving the economic and trade inflows in the South Pacific, as well as the surrounding transit areas. Now, opening this route to Africa will further extend our service network to the Indian Ocean.”
As an international shipping hub, Yangpu Port has completed a total of 1.01 million TEUs from January to August, a year-on-year increase of over 35%, and a foreign trade container volume of 190,000 TEUs, a year-on-year growth of over 15%.
“At present, the terminals are all normally operated with 8 lines per shift, and the average daily operation volume is from 5,000 to 6,000 TEUs,” said Wang Dingyu, Dept. Manager of the Yangpu International Container Terminal Co., Ltd.
Yangpu Port has 40 routes in stable operation nowadays, covering major domestic coastal ports and major ports in Southeast Asia. Among them, there are 19 foreign trade routes and 21 domestic trade routes, becoming another gateway for boosting China’s high-level of openness.