The beginning of 2026 has marked a significant breakthrough in route expansion for Shandong Port's Qingdao Port: within a single month, it consecutively launched four new container services—MSC's Australia-New Zealand route, COSCO Shipping's Red Sea route and Southeast Asia route, and Cheng Lie Navigation's Southeast Asia route. These additions provide clients with more abundant and flexible shipping options, ensuring stable and smooth industrial and supply chain operations. Consequently, the total number of Qingdao Port's international trade routes has expanded to nearly 240, solidifying its position as the hub with the highest number and density of routes among northern Chinese ports. The port now achieves interconnectivity with over 700 ports across more than 180 countries and territories worldwide, further enhancing the reach and influence of the Northeast Asia international shipping hub.
Route network planning serves as a critical window into observing regional economic dynamics and national strategic layouts. Data reveals that in 2025, Shandong Province's total import and export value reached 3.53 trillion yuan, representing a 4.5% year-on-year increase. Trade with countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative accounted for over 60% of this total, while exports to Africa and the Middle East saw growth rates of 38.6% and 18.5%, respectively. This robust trade momentum provides solid support for route expansion. The intensive launch of four new routes exemplifies Qingdao Port's proactive approach in precisely aligning with national development strategies and collaborating with global shipping giants to adapt to new trends in foreign trade development.
From the perspective of serving high-quality Belt and Road Initiative cooperation, the newly launched Red Sea route closely links Qingdao Port with key gateways in the Middle East and Africa, such as Jeddah Port in Saudi Arabia and Sokhna Port in Egypt. It establishes stable and reliable transoceanic logistics channels for bulk commodities like energy and building materials, while also providing efficient support for the global expansion of emerging Chinese industries such as new energy vehicles and photovoltaic products, thereby facilitating deeper and more substantive cooperation between China and other nations in new sectors.
Viewing from the new starting point of China-Australia relations, the inauguration of the Australia-New Zealand route coincides with the important milestone of the second decade of the China-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. This route achieves direct connectivity between northern China and core hub ports like Sydney and Brisbane in Australia, significantly reducing voyage times compared to traditional transshipment models. It directly serves the export of northern China's competitive industries like mechanical and electrical products and chemicals, while conveniently handling the import distribution of Australian goods, becoming a new link deepening practical economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.
Regarding the activation of RCEP regional cooperation benefits, the two Southeast Asia routes further deepen regional economic and trade collaboration. They increase the density of the route network between Qingdao Port and major ASEAN ports like Thailand's Laem Chabang, fully leveraging the effects of tariff reductions and trade facilitation policies. This paves a "maritime expressway" for trade in electronics and specialty agricultural products, promoting the deep integration and synergistic upgrade of regional industrial and supply chains.
The strategic choices of international shipping giants represent a comprehensive vote on a port's location advantages, hinterland economic vitality, operational efficiency, and service standards. The simultaneous landing of four important routes at Qingdao Port stems from high recognition of the port's comprehensive strength and also reflects the open dynamism of economic and trade development in northern China. As China's second-largest foreign trade port, the largest port in the north, and the premier outlet to the sea for the Yellow River basin, Qingdao Port is situated at the land-sea convergence point of the Belt and Road Initiative, possessing exceptional geographical advantages and hinterland resources.
Relying on a network of 56 inland dry ports, it extends its service reach to provinces and regions throughout the Yellow River basin. Eighty-six sea-rail intermodal transport services form "golden channels," with sea-rail container volume leading the nation for 11 consecutive years, allowing inland cargo direct access to the seaport and gathering a continuous flow of goods for route operations. Efficiency and service are core competitive advantages. Qingdao Port operates a world-leading fully automated container terminal, having broken world handling efficiency records 13 times. Catering to client needs, it provides customized "one enterprise, one policy" solutions and promotes convenient models like "direct shipside pickup" and "arrival direct loading," with vessel direct berthing rates consistently ranking among the top of major global ports, ensuring smooth vessel turnover and swift cargo movement through its highly efficient operational system.
Furthermore, the continuously optimized port business environment constitutes a key "soft power." Qingdao Port strengthens coordination with Qingdao Customs, seamlessly integrating smart supervision into port production operations, creating a highly efficient export channel for foreign trade enterprises. It has received the highest star rating for the cross-border trade business environment of container cargo at seaports for five consecutive years, becoming one of the core competitive edges attracting global shipping lines to establish routes. According to Qingdao Customs statistics, in 2025, the total import and export value at Qingdao port reached 2.65 trillion yuan, a 1.8% year-on-year increase, with exports totaling 1.69 trillion yuan, up 5.1% year-on-year.
The intensive launch of new routes signifies not only growth in container volume but also an expansion and enhancement of Qingdao Port's service structure, facilitating the efficient circulation of capital, technology, industry, and other factors. Each new route acts as a supply chain link connecting domestic and international markets. Leveraging Qingdao Port's stable operational cycles, handling efficiency, and collection and distribution systems, the new routes will significantly broaden the capacity of foreign trade export channels. They provide timely and efficient logistics support for northern foreign trade enterprises striving to explore emerging markets and optimize export structures, positioning Qingdao Port as a vital gateway in the dual circulation of domestic and international markets.
In terms of value creation, the added shipping capacity not only effectively alleviates booking pressure during peak shipping seasons and optimizes the allocation of foreign trade logistics resources but also, through route optimization and cost control, reduces burdens and increases efficiency for foreign trade enterprises, stimulating market vitality. This, in turn, attracts related industries to cluster within the port's hinterland. Simultaneously, deepening industrial linkages via these route networks guides synergistic upgrades across the industrial chain's upstream and downstream sectors. This better facilitates the global reach of "Made in China" while also promoting the entry of "world-quality goods" into the Chinese market, achieving coordinated development and quality and efficiency improvements in two-way trade.
Positioned at the critical starting point of the "16th Five-Year Plan" period, Shandong Port's Qingdao Port will continue to optimize its global route network and enhance its service efficiency and hub capacity. On the journey of serving national strategies and empowering high-quality development, it is poised to demonstrate greater achievements and stronger commitment.