Roll-on/roll-off ship Ji Long Dao, departing Dalian Port in Northeast China's Liaoning province recently docked at Yantai Port, operated by Shandong Port Group or SPG – one of the world's biggest port operators, based in Qingdao city in East China's Shandong province.

A total of 20 open top containers, loaded with corn products produced in Northeast China, were lifted out of the ship to nearby trucks.

This was reportedly the first time that the shipment of grain products between provinces and across the sea took place via a new logistics mode combining "sea-rail intermodal transportation and swap trailer transport".

As such, it marked the successful launch of Yantai Port's new north-south multimodal transport channel along the Tongjiang-Sanya expressway. SPG has reportedly debuted a direct golden waterway for North-to-South grain transportation between Yantai city in Shandong province and Dalian city in Liaoning province.

In the wake of its port integration reforms, SPG has proactively strengthened and coordinated its development with Liaoning Port Group. On Sept 23 last year, the two sides signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement on building world-class seaports.

After arriving at Yantai Port, the goods will be directly sent to local manufacturing factories via the Tongjiang-Sanya expressway network. Compared with established transport system, the new mode is said to halve the freight time, cut costs by 10 percent and reduce cargo damage by 1.5 percent.