At 20:00 on July 23, with the completion of more than 700 containers loading tasks, the vessel Mediterranean Aida 2 slowly left the Tianjin Port Eurasia International Container Terminal, marking the official maiden voyage of the Mediterranean Southeast Asia Route of Tianjin Port, which is the third new route opened by Tianjin Port to serve Belt & Road and RCEP since July. The successive opening of new routes has further expanded the network of Tianjin Port's foreign trade routes, enhanced the density of shipping on the near-ocean routes in Southeast Asia, speeded up shipping and trade exchanges between the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and RCEP member countries, further unblocked the domestic and international double cycle, and contributed to the high-quality development of the service of Belt and Road through the Power of Tianjin Port.

The Mediterranean Southeast Asia Route is the first Southeast Asia route opened by Mediterranean Shipping in Tianjin Port in recent years, focusing on serving RCEP member countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. It is operated by 5 to 6 full container vessels of 2500-3500 TEU on a weekly basis.

"The newly launched Mediterranean Southeast Asia pertiwi route, which can sail directly from Tianjin port to Southeast Asia ports, meets the current demand for Southeast Asia import and export capacity in the northern market and provides stronger timeliness and space guarantee for enterprises to ship their cargoes," said Hu Songyang, Sales Manager of Tianjin Branch of Shengli Mediterranean Shipping (Shanghai) Co. "

Meng Boxue, General Manager of North China Region of Tianjin Haitong Boyuan Logistics Co., Ltd. said, "The newly opened Mediterranean Southeast Asia route realizes direct sea voyage from Northern China to many countries in Southeast Asia to meet customers' requirements on delivery time. The operational efficiency of service vessels in Tianjin port is high, and Mediterranean Shipping provides a longer overall container-free period in the port of origin and destination than other carriers, which meets the front-end and end logistics needs and reduces the total trade cost."

In addition to this service, Tianjin Port also opened the Dafei/Taiping/Honghai Southeast Asia Service on July 6 and the Haifeng Southeast Asia Route on July 14. "The successive opening of new routes to achieve the port of Tianjin with the major ports in Southeast Asia are daily container liner traffic, and shorten the minimum time of sea transport to 9 days from Tianjin to Southeast Asian countries, can provide customers with more convenient sea cargo transport channel options". Said Liu Xin, Route Development Manager of the Business Department of Tianjin Port Joint Stock Company.

With the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) coming into effect this year, China's import and export to countries along the Belt and Road and RCEP trade partners grew by 17.8% and 5.6% respectively in the first half of the year. As the maritime gateway to Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and an important sea port in the Three Norths region of China, Tianjin Port has given full play to its role as a land and sea intersection of the Belt and Road and an international port serving the overall opening up of China. With the support of relevant port units, Tianjin Port Group has coordinated with shipping companies, continued to improve its services to customers, optimize port resources allocation and enhance port operation efficiency, and jointly ensured a steady and positive growth in container traffic between Tianjin Port and Southeast Asian countries. Among them, container traffic with the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Myanmar and other RCEP-related countries increased by more than 7% year-on-year. The value of imports and exports of Tianjin port to major trading partners have maintained growth to provide an efficient and convenient maritime channel protection. According to Tianjin Customs figures, in the first half of the year, the import and export of Tianjin port to countries along the Belt and Road increased by 42.6%, and the import and export of RCEP trading partners increased by 18.2%.

In the first half of the year, Tianjin Port Group completed a container throughput of 10.511 million, with an increase of 2.1% year-on-year and made the best record in its history.