A container terminal in the Jintang port area of Ningbo Zhoushan Port in Zhejiang province. [Photo/Tide News]

The container ship TJ Orhan docked at the Dapukou container terminal in the Jintang port area of Ningbo Zhoushan Port in Zhejiang province on Aug 30.

It was the first ship to travel along the "new sea-land Red Sea route", heading to countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The Jintang port area now boasts 41 shipping routes connecting countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative.

The ship carried a total of 696 twenty-foot equivalent units, mainly exporting electromechanical products, cultural goods, and Christmas decorations produced in the Yangtze River Delta region.

The new route is operated by Seaway Lines, with two 30,000-metric-ton container ships operating on a bi-weekly schedule. The route starts from Qingdao in Shandong province, travels south along the Chinese coast, exits through Zhoushan, and reaches ports such as Singapore Port, Jeddah Islamic Port, and Sokhna Port.

According to Zhoushan Customs, the current BRI shipping routes from the Dapukou container terminal connect to over 60 major ports in regions including Russia, West Africa, East Africa, and the Red Sea.

The new route not only expands the foreign trade route network of the Jintang port area, but also helps enterprises reduce overall logistics costs and enhance international market competitiveness.

Official statistics show that from January to July this year, Zhoushan Customs supervised a total of 437,000 TEUs on BRI shipping routes, a year-on-year increase of 12.6 percent.