China’s COSCO Group (中國海運集團), owner and operator of one of the largest container ships in the world, is eyeing Kaohsiung Harbor as a transshipment center to bolster transshipping and logistics services.
The 10,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) COSCO Oceania anchored at Kaohsiung Harbor on Wednesday after the historic inauguration of direct cross-Taiwan Strait shipping links on Monday, unloading around 50 containers and loading some 900 containers before heading for Hong Kong en route to Europe.
The COSCO Oceania, the largest container ship in Asia and one of the largest in the world, embarked from the Chinese port of Tianjin on Monday and arrived at Kaohsiung 55 hours later to become the first Chinese ship to visit a Taiwanese port via direct shipping links since 1949.
COSCO Group chairman Wei Jiafu (魏家福), who flew into Taiwan on Monday to witness the inauguration of the direct links, attended a reception at Kaohsiung Harbor yesterday and said that the COSCO Group was having an even bigger container ship built — a 13,500 TEU vessel to be named the COSCO Kaohsiung — which will ply its global routes with Kaohsiung Harbor as one of its key transshipping points.
Also speaking at the reception, Kaohsiung Harbor Administration Director-General Hsieh Ming-hui (謝明輝) said the harbor’s history would be rewritten when the COSCO Kaohsiung makes its maiden voyage to Kaohsiung Harbor in 2010.
Taiwan and China resumed daily direct passenger flights, cargo flights and shipping links on Monday. Ships can sail between 11 ports in Taiwan and 63 ports in China without being required to transit through a third region.
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