Shandong Port Qingdao Port Adds Another New Southeast Asia Route The total number of routes in the region remains the highest among northern ports

（Source: China Water Transport Network）

Reprinted from: China Water Transport Network

On April 4, as the “Eileen” vessel successfully docked at the Front Bay Port Container Terminal, Qingdao Port of Shandong Port welcomed the first voyage of Maersk’s newly launched Southeast Asia route, adding strong impetus to the shipping layout toward Southeast Asia. At present, Qingdao Port has cumulatively opened more than 50 Southeast Asia routes; the number ranks first among ports in Northern China, and it has formed a high-frequency operating system covering major ports in ASEAN, providing solid support for keeping regional industrial chains and supply chains stable, efficient, and unimpeded.

The route is mainly based on a normalized weekly schedule, with 6 ships of 2,500 standard containers configured. With sufficient capacity and stable sailing schedules, a single route can efficiently link up key ports in countries such as the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. It can not only effectively meet Shandong and surrounding markets’ import demand for Southeast Asia’s specialty agricultural products and raw materials, but also lay out a “maritime express corridor” to accelerate the export of “Made in China” products such as chemical goods and electromechanical products, boosting the quality and speed of two-way trade.

For many years, China and ASEAN, as important global trade partners, have seen their economic and trade ties grow increasingly close. Data from the General Administration of Customs shows that in the first two months of 2026, the total value of China–ASEAN trade reached 1.24 trillion yuan, up 20.3% year on year. As the world’s fourth-largest port and China’s second-largest foreign trade gateway, with support from port regulatory authorities such as the Huangdao Customs and the Qianwan Maritime Office, Qingdao Port continues to intensify the network layout of Southeast Asia routes. It keeps deeply integrating the core-hub capabilities of Qingdao Port with the development of China–ASEAN economic and trade cooperation, effectively reducing logistics costs for foreign trade enterprises, improving supply chain efficiency, and laying a solid maritime foundation for high-level opening-up and high-quality joint construction of the “Belt and Road” initiative.

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