On September 21, the container vessel “Istanbul Bridge” from Sea Legend Shipping berthed for the first time in Jiangyin terminal in Fuzhou Port. This marks that Fujian Province’s first China-Europe Arctic Express route under the “Polar Silk Road” vision has opened smoothly, and the first port in Fujian Province has integrated itself into the Arctic shipping and logistics system.

The new route, via which new energy lithium batteries manufactured by CATL and Wanhua Chemical Group’s chemical products are transported, will take a record transit time of 18 days to arrive at base ports in Europe. The shipping company can tailor-make express shipping solutions for foreign trade enterprises that effect shipment in Fuzhou Port, and create unprecedented logistics solutions for the forthcoming Christmas season in China-Europe trade as well as the supply of raw materials for such European industries as chemical engineering and building materials.

The route covers major Chinese ports such as Dalian, Qingdao, Shanghai, Fuzhou and Ningbo, and leads directly to core hubs in Europe, including Felixstowe in the UK, Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Hamburg in Germany and Gdansk in Poland. Spanning all critical nodes in China-Europe economic and trade ties, the whole journey will take only 19 days, 7 days less than China-Europe Railway Express and over 20 days faster than the conventional Asia-Europe shipping route via Suez Canal. The move marks the participation of the Arctic shipping route in Asia-Europe seaborne international trade, a significant breakthrough, and will help Fuzhou Port to pivot in a strategic way from a regional port to a key node in global supply chains.

Sea Legend Shipping has decided to choose the Jiangyin terminal in Fuzhou Port as the sole port of call for the shipping route in Fujian Province. This is a clear indication of its trust in the terminal’s comprehensive capacity of handling new energy products and hazardous goods. The Jiangyin terminal boasts Fujian Province’s first procedure-based standard yard for hazardous goods containers, whose area amounts to 14,000 square meters, with an annual handling capacity of 28,000 TEUs. To prevent the slightest error in the mission, the Jiangyin terminal in Fuzhou Port custom-made a safety management and control program across the chain for the batch of lithium batteries to ensure these “gigantic power banks” are safely and efficiently loaded on board.

The premier voyage is far more than a breakthrough, but marks the Jiangyin terminal in Fuzhou Port starting to achieve a greater presence in international shipping routes. Buoyed by an international container shipping route presentation, the Jiangyin terminal in Fuzhou Port has joined hands with Sea Legend Shipping to provide enterprises nearby Fuzhou Port with a shortcut to Europe via the Arctic, and enable more inland manufacturing enterprises to enjoy the favorable transit time of the Arctic route, thereby helping products made in China to enter global markets at a faster pace. (Text by Wang Guanghui and Liu Jun, Photo by Xue Youxiong)