CABOTAGE

Maersk became the first international container shipping company to carry out domestic shipments in China. The container ship ‘Merete Maersk’ brought 27 containers from Vancouver (Canada) from Shanghai’s Yangshan terminal to Tianjin, the maritime gateway to the capital Beijing.

The Danish container shipping company speaks of “a milestone in China’s opening of the cabotage market for foreign carriers”. The Chinese government decided last November to allow cabotage by foreign container shipping companies on a pilot basis until December 31, 2024 between four ports; besides Yangshan and Tianjin also Qingdao and Dalian. Maersk was one of the shipping companies that had been pushing for such an opening of the Chinese market for some time.

Maersk says transshipment in Shanghai allows her to “optimize networks.” “It can address some of the causes behind the bottlenecks in China’s supply chains, shorten transit times, reduce emissions and make additional capacity available to our customers.”

The Danish shipping company believes that China itself can also benefit and make Shanghai an even more important maritime center. Until now, shipping companies had to rely on ports such as Singapore and Busan for transshipment. Maersk also says it hopes the Chinese government’s move will inspire other countries where restrictions on international shipping still exist.