TIANJIN, March 20 (Xinhua) -- A container ship loaded with 692 standard containers, departed northern China's port city of Tianjin for Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam on Thursday evening.
It marked Tianjin port's first route launched this year along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. So far, Tianjin port has developed 130 container routes.
The new container liner ship carries goods including electronic products, drugs, fertilizers and fruits, according to Meng Qingzhu, vice general manager of business department of Tianjin Port Holdings Co., Ltd.(600717.SH).
After the launch, the weekly route from Tianjin port to Ho Chi Minh port has been turned into a twice-a-week route, which solves the problem of insufficient direct shipping capacity and reduces the time of goods waiting in the port.
"It will help enterprises cut two days of voyage time and five percent of logistics costs. It is an exciting news for those trying to resume production amid the COVID-19 epidemic," said Meng.
At present, Tianjin port has launched 46 container routes along the Belt and Road. Among them, 32 container lines are accessible to Southeast Asia, with an annual cargo throughput of 1.57 million TEUs.
In 2019, Tianjin port handled 17.3 million TEUs, half of which came from the ports in countries and regions along the Belt and Road. (Contributed by Wang Ning, Li Ting, edited by Hu Pingchao, hupingchao@xinhua.org)
A single purchase
