Qingdao Port opens its second African container route this year on Nov 5. [photo/Dazhong News]

The maiden voyage of the Far East African Express (FAX) service connecting major ports in China with Mombasa in Kennya and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania left Qingdao Port, a coastal city in Shandong province, on Nov 5.

The weekly FAX service is the second African route opened by Qingdao Port this year. Qingdao Port currently offers nine African container routes.

The new route is jointly operated by six shipping companies: Dexiang Shipping, Emirates Shipping Line, Honghai Shipping, Yunda Shipping, Gyunda Shipping, and Koryo Shipping. A total of six container ships have been invested in the route.

The service route departs from Qingdao and calls at Shanghai and Ningbo along the way. After the domestic port, the express service goes directly to the Mombasa (KPA)-Dar Es Salaam (TICTS) port in eastern Africa, which has few port calls, offers fast arrival procedures, and has a tight shipping schedule.

The commissioning of this route is set to further enrich the global route network of Qingdao Port. According to data released by the Chinese Ministry of Transport, from January to September, the container throughput of Qingdao Port reached 21.43 million TEUs, a year-on-year increase of 11.8 percent.