Qingdao Port Building an International Logistics Corridor

In the first eight months of this year, Shandong Port Qingdao Port (hereinafter referred to as "Qingdao Port") opened 20 new container shipping routes, with a frequency equivalent to the total of the past two years, setting a new historical high. The ocean going giant ships are coming from afar, with containers arranged in rows. Goods from all over the world are gathering here for turnover, quickly building international logistics channels for "buying the world" and "selling the world", making China more closely connected with the world.
Intensive expansion of international routes
At present, the phenomenon of "one cabin is hard to find" and "one box is hard to find" frequently occurs in the booming maritime market, and "only peak season and super peak season" has become a new phenomenon in the international maritime market. In this context, Qingdao Port, as the largest foreign trade port in northern China, continues to attract more and more shipping companies to open new routes.
In January this year, the "the Belt and Road" and RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement) routes of Qingdao Port officially launched, and three new international routes were opened, namely, Evergreen Southeast Asia Line, Wanhai/Yunda Vietnam Line, Wanhai/Yunda/Yixing/Korea India Line. Three international routes were opened at the same time to comprehensively build a low-cost and efficient "maritime gold channel" for the import of means of livelihood to Southeast Asia, Central Asia and other countries along the "the Belt and Road".
Half a year later, the Qingdao Port Wanhai Shipping Line to the West Coast of the United States will be opened. This route regards Qingdao Port as the only port of call in northern China, with a focus on fast shipping services. Starting from Qingdao, it only takes 15 days to reach the main port of Auckland on the west coast of the United States, building an efficient and fast maritime logistics channel from northern China to the west coast of the United States.
In response to the high growth in demand in the shipping market this year, Qingdao Port has emerged with a number of characteristic routes, such as Alibaba's worry free express route, the European and Eastern pendulum route opened by COSCO Shipping, and temporary routes opened by other large shipping companies and freight companies themselves.
Expanding air routes brings benefits to foreign trade and logistics enterprises. Liu Xin, the pulp business manager of a logistics group in Qingdao, stated that the company acts as an agent for the newly opened North American ocean export route, importing pulp from Canada and exporting board to the United States. By utilizing the innovative "consolidation to dispersion" (container goods are transported by bulk carriers and multi-purpose cargo ships) model at the port, the bulk carriers return fully loaded, greatly alleviating the pressure on board exports. "Now that container freight rates have risen and cabin space is tight, the centralized to bulk mode has effectively helped export customers reduce logistics costs, attracting more and more urban foreign trade enterprises to bring goods here to be loaded onto bulk carriers for export. At the same time, it has helped foreign shipping companies release their transport capacity, improving both supply and demand." Liu Xin said.
Alan, the business manager of Canada's Derrick Trading Company, also praised the route, saying, "This route can change the current situation and transport goods in a better, faster, and cheaper way, which has relieved us of our worries. We attach great importance to the Chinese market now. Although there is a 12 hour time difference, in order to carry out trade business, the company has adjusted to work at night and synchronize with Chinese working hours to ensure smooth and timely delivery of goods."
The intensive increase in air routes at Qingdao Port not only highlights China's close connection with the world economy, but also fully demonstrates China's irreplaceable position in international trade.
"Undoubtedly, China is an important contributor to the global trade recovery." As Helge Berger, Assistant Director of the Asia Pacific Department and Director of China Affairs at the International Monetary Fund, said, today, China's connections with other regions of the world are closer, and the Chinese economy will achieve a more balanced recovery in the post pandemic era, bringing positive spillover effects to the global economy.
Innovative Services Shine the Signboard
The efficient and innovative services of Qingdao Port have also become an important factor in attracting shipping companies to expand their routes.
On August 24th, the Mediterranean Martina was docked at the Qingdao Port Automation Terminal. Relying on the world's leading fully automated 5G smart dock technology, containers are efficiently and orderly transported, and the single crane operation efficiency of the bridge crane reaches 52.1 natural containers per hour, breaking the world record for loading and unloading of automated docks for the seventh time.
At the same time, the port has collaborated with customs, maritime and other departments to tailor a smart supervision model, significantly reducing the time for customs clearance of goods.
Qingdao Customs has implemented an intelligent unmanned checkpoint supervision mode at automated terminals, making it as convenient for vehicles to enter and exit the checkpoint as passing through the high-speed ETC (Electronic Toll Collection System), achieving zero intervention in on-site supervision, zero stationed checkpoint supervision, and zero waiting time for actual cargo supervision.
In addition, Qingdao Port has pioneered the "docking and hot docking" operation mode globally, scientifically and compactly arranging the docking and docking process of ships at the same berth. After the departing ships leave the berth, the berthing ships follow closely and dock, reducing the empty berthing time between two ships at the same dock to the shortest. From January to August this year, Qingdao Port operated 286 sets of "nesting and hot docking" ships, saving 380 hours of time for ships to enter and exit the port.
The high-quality and efficient service has polished the "golden signboard" of Qingdao Port's fast loading and unloading port. Under the strategic superimposed enabling effect of the "the Belt and Road", the Shandong Free Trade Zone and the Shanghai Cooperation Demonstration Zone, Qingdao Port is making continuous efforts to become the hub port of the logistics channel connecting northern China to the world, and accelerating to build an international shipping hub in Northeast Asia.
Seamless linkage between land and sea
While continuously expanding routes, Qingdao's sea rail intermodal transportation extends its port advantages, achieving the connection between sea and international railway transportation, making Qingdao an international logistics hub city that facilitates economic and trade cooperation between China and Eurasian countries.
Goods from Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asian countries are unloaded at Qingdao Port and transported through sea rail intermodal transportation. They take an international train from the SCO Demonstration Zone and travel westward. After 7 to 15 days, these goods arrive in Eurasian countries such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Germany, and Russia.
China Europe Express, Central Asia Express, China Mongolia Express, China South Korea Express, ASEAN Special Line... Qingdao continues to promote seamless connection between sea and rail intermodal transportation, creating an international logistics network with Qingdao Port as the axis and radiating to Europe and Asia. While reducing logistics costs, it provides a smooth and fast logistics channel for the two-way transportation of Japan, South Korea, and Eurasian countries.
Since the beginning of this year, the Qingdao sea rail intermodal international train has newly opened routes such as the Shanghai Cooperation Demonstration Zone - Bishkek, Baku, Dusseldorf - Rotterdam - London, Hamburg, Milan, Izmit, Tbilisi, Helsinki - Shanghai Cooperation Demonstration Zone.
At the same time, Qingdao also supports the expansion of the business scope of the China Europe freight train "SCO Express", and the launch of characteristic freight trains such as the export goods special train for foreign contracted projects, the first cold chain special train, and the first cross-border e-commerce goods special train.
Data shows that in the first eight months of this year, 358 China EU trains arrived and departed in Qingdao, carrying 29000 TEUs, up 53.6% and 85.2% year on year respectively. At present, 22 international and domestic railway trains reach the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and 18 countries and 46 cities along the the Belt and Road, creating a new link for economic and trade cooperation along the the Belt and Road.
The operation of international trains has injected new momentum into Qingdao's establishment of a Eurasian economic and trade cooperation link. Tajikistan's Ambassador to China, Said Zoda, has a deep understanding of this: "Qingdao's sea rail intermodal transportation has helped Central Asian countries obtain sea ports and trade channels to South Korea and Japan, injecting strong impetus into the development of economic and trade relations among SCO countries."
[Source: Overseas Edition of People's Daily]