QINGDAO -- Cargo throughput at Qingdao Port has grown rapidly since the beginning of this year, providing great dynamism for foreign trade, domestic demand and socio-economic development in the country.

A freight loaded with more than 1,000 containers of electromechanical devices, ceramics and chemical products recently departed from the Qianwan Container Terminal in Qingdao Port, east China's Shandong Province, heading for South Korea and Singapore.
Qingdao Port has opened 15 new direct routes to countries involved in the Belt and Road cooperation and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) since the beginning of this year.

"The newly opened routes to South America, Middle East, India and Pakistan have seen more than 20 percent of growth in the volume of outbound containers. The volume of loaded containers to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries increased by 5 percent. Routes for the combined sea-rail transport service have risen to 72 now," said Lou Yunjie, deputy general manager of Qingdao Port International Container Development Co., Ltd.