Central China Logistics Hanya 1, the tailored 500-TEU vessel for the 
Wuhan-Japan direct container shipping route, departed the Yangluo port in 
Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei Province, and headed for Japan early on 
Thursday.

In five days, the ship will sail eastward alongside the Yangtze River and 
arrive at the port of Osaka in Japan, marking the formal operation of the 
direct river-ocean container shipping route linking Wuhan and Japan.

As an official from Wuhan Port and Shipping Development Group explained the 
Wuhan-Japan shipping route adopts a "point-to-point" shipping mode, under which 
the related container vessels set off from the Yangluo port in Wuhan and stop 
in Osaka, Kobe, Nagoya and other ports in Japan.

Previously, container ships from Wuhan to Japan need transshipment in Shanghai 
and were often troubled by uncertainties in marine traffic and weather 
conditions, which directly increased the logistics cycle and costs of related 
enterprises.

Zhang Lin, director of Wuhan New Port Administration Committee, said that 
compared with the past transshipment-needed river-ocean joint transportation, 
the new direct container shipping service saves more than a 1,000 km shipping 
distance and about two days of shipping time. It differs from the past shipping 
routes in management concepts, vessel utilization, cargo source organization 
and shipping services, noted Zhang.

Operation of the route means Wuhan can directly carry out logistics trade with 
Japan and the new route is likely to be a key bridge to boost economic and 
trade cooperation between China and Japan, remarked Zhang.

As Zhang hopes, Japanese enterprises are anticipated to make good use of the 
route so as to bring the Sino-Japan economic and trade cooperation in inland 
areas of China to a new height.

On Thursday, the city also launched the China's Wuhan-Japan river-ocean direct 
shipping and international joint transportation project. Under the program, the 
newly-launched direct container shipping route will be connected with the 
Sino-Europe freight train routes of Wuhan to forge new international trade 
channels linking ports of Japan, Wuhan of Hubei Province, the Middle East, 
Central Asia and Europe. 

By then, cargo from Japan can be transported to Europe and the Middle East via 
transshipment in Wuhan, saving more than 10 days compared with that by the 
existing maritime shipping routes between Japan and Europe. 

Original link: https://en.imsilkroad.com/p/309674.html

SOURCE: Xinhua Silk Road Information Service