The opening ceremony of a new shipping line linking Shandong and India was held at Qingdao Port, a subsidiary corporation of Shandong Port Group (SPG), on Aug 30.

The first ship to ply the line departed from Qingdao Port and is scheduled to arrive at Chennai Port in India after 16 days.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the proposal of the Belt and Road Initiative. Over the past decade, Qingdao Port has been actively involved in BRI construction and grasped the development opportunities of SPG to become a world-class port cluster  within the province.

Since the integrated development of SPG started in 2019, Qingdao Port has been committed to turning it into an international shipping hub center in Northeast Asia.

According to official data, Qingdao Port opened 15 new container routes and built four inland ports in the first half of this year. A total of 1.15 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of cargo were handled via the port's sea-rail combined transport mode, a year-on-year increase of 18.6 percent, and this made positive contributions to the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin.

Relying on SPG's regional advantages in connecting north and south, east and west, and land and sea, the newly-opened shipping line departs from Qingdao and docks at several major domestic and foreign coastal ports, including Shanghai, Ningbo, Shekou, as well as India's Chennai and Visakhapatnam ports. The operation of this line will give full play to SPG's shipping resources and network advantages, and promote the high-quality development of SPG.

The opening ceremony of a new shipping line linking Shandong and India is held at Qingdao Port, a subsidiary corporation of SPG, on Aug 30. [Photo/WeChat account: Shandong-Port]