A liner ship docks at a port of Guangxi's Beibu Gulf. [Photo by Yu Jing/chinanews.com]

Beibu Gulf in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region will open 41 new shipping routes to ports in ASEAN countries over the next five years in order to strengthen China-ASEAN cooperation in shipping transportation, officials from Guangxi Transportation Department announced on Jan 5.

More shipping routes heading to destinations such as member countries of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), North America, Europe and the Middle East will also be launched. 

Efforts will be made to cultivate a distinctive logistics business by taking initiatives such as transporting fruit and fireworks from Southeast Asia.

Guangxi has given full play to its unique geographical location to construct major transportation channels linking inland China and overseas areas ever since the start of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20). The region has started construction on 36 new projects and has finished construction of 18 major projects, such as the east channel of Qinzhou Port's first and second expansion projects.

Guangxi has established a close relationship with seven ASEAN countries and 47 ports, opening 47 regular container liner ship routes.

The cargo throughput of Beibu Gulf International Gateway Port is estimated to reach 300 million metric tons in 2020, and the handling capacity of containers will exceed 5 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU).