In the first half of 2020, Shandong Port Group (SPG) has turned adversity into opportunity, achieving progress in three indexes–overall throughput, container throughput and profits – which is an outstanding result amid the COVID-19 outbreak. The group's overall throughout exceeded 700 million tons, up 7.1 percent year-on-year, while container throughput increased by 2.5 percent year-on-year to 14.78 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units).

An organizational structure based on "1+4+10+2" was established, with one headquarters, four port groups, 10 business sectors, as well as the Vocational Education Group and Medical and Health Group. Six domestic feeder routes were opened under the joint efforts of four port groups. With the help of these self-owned routes, all ports in Shandong province are connected.

Centering on the stability of foreign trade and investment, great efforts have been made to stabilize waterway transport and open new seaward routes. The world's largest container vessel of shipping alliance THE Alliance (six member lines - Hapag-Lloyd, Yang Ming, MOL, NYK, K Line and Hanjin Shipping), with a loading capacity of 24,000 TEUs, docked at SPG for the second time, boosting confidence in industrial sectors. On land, SPG has promoted the outcomes agreed in the inland port promotion meeting with Xi'an, Lanzhou and Urumqi. By forming partnerships with cities, SPG has optimized the layout of inland ports and sea-rail combined transport, in a bid to build an unimpeded logistics thoroughfare for import and export enterprises. 

With the goal of building world-class sea ports, SPG has followed a development orientation of promoting five internationally advanced ports. Taking advantage of being selected as the country's first pilot unit to promote smart port construction approved by the Ministry of Transport, SPG successfully held the Conference on Promoting World-Class Smart and Green Ports Development in Shandong.

Based on serving national development strategies such as the Belt and Road Initiative, ecological protection in the Yellow River basin and high-quality development, SPG has stepped up efforts to sign strategic agreements with 16 cities in Shandong. Efforts have also been made to facilitate connection and integration between ports and cities in terms of resources and functions, in order to advance the coordinated development of Shandong Provincial Capital Economic Circle, Lunan Economic Circle and Jiaodong Economic Circle.

Since the start of this year, SPG has launched 30 shipping routes, including 14 foreign trade routes, which brings the total to nearly 300, ranking first in northern ports in China. In addition, two inland ports were built, five freight train routes were added, and a total of 947,000 TEUs were handled by multimodal transport, up 15.5 percent year-on-year, which has ensured its position as the front-runner among China's coastal ports.

With the future in mind, SPG will integrate into the Belt and Road Initiative with the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind, shouldering the responsibility to serve significant national strategies. Meanwhile, platform mentality should be introduced to create an end-to-end supply chain system, in an effort to expand port presence and forge ahead further.