The world's largest containership, HMM GDANSK, called at the port of Xiamen in east China's Fujian Province on July 7, 2020. Photo:Xinhua

East China's Fujian Province-based international shipping association "Silk Road Maritime" on Thursday unveiled six new international ship routes, bringing the total routes to 100 ahead of its fifth anniversary, further securing the maritime supply chain under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The association has operated over 10,000 international ship trips and handled over 12 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) via its international ship routes, which go to 108 overseas ports in 31 countries and regions, according to the "Silk Road Maritime" Annual Meeting and Spring Summit 2023 held on Thursday in Xiamen, Fujian Province. The association was established in December 2018.

In June 2022, the "Silk Road Maritime" association launched an express shipping route for cross-border e-commerce trade from Xiamen to Southeast Asian countries in a bid to boost the development of regional e-commerce markets under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

Boosted by the implementation of the RCEP, ASEAN was still China's largest trade partner in 2022, with the bilateral trade volume reaching 6.52 trillion yuan ($950.34 billion), an increase of 15 percent year-on-year.

Chinese customs data showed that in 2022, Fujian realized 135.85 billion yuan of foreign trade in the cross-border e-commerce sector, up 22.1 percent year-on-year, with 128.64 billion yuan in exports, up 21.1 percent year-on-year, Fujian Daily reported.

In addition, the association in 2022 launched another two special shipping routes for iron ore and stone materials connecting Fujian with Brazil and India, which have operated over 60 ships transporting over 3.2 million tons of cargo through the routes as of now.

During the meeting, the association signed a letter of intent with four railway transport companies including China Railway Nanchang Branch, China Railway Container Transport Co, China Railway Special Cargo Logistics Co and China Railway Express Co, to form a comprehensive logistics channel connecting China's inner regions and Southeast Asian countries via land and maritime transportation networks.

Chen Zhiping, president of the Fujian Provincial Port Group Co, said during the meeting that the association was China's first maritime-themed logistics international shipping platform under the BRI, which now has over 300 members globally including maritime enterprises, trade companies and other logistics operators, and vowed to accelerate the establishment of maritime standards within the association to improve cooperation efficiency.

The first phase of the association's shipping information platform has been put into service with a total investment of 31.08 million yuan ($4.52 million), providing multiple services including process visualization, operation monitoring and cargo space booking. The second phase is scheduled to be completed in 2025 with more data communication, intelligent application, maritime finance and other functions, according to the association.

The 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) unveiled in 2021 listed enhancing the brand influence of "Silk Road Maritime" on the work of building the BRI with high quality. A development outline targeting building modern transportation systems issued by the State Council in 2022 also mentioned expanding the brand influence of "Silk Road Maritime" by making the international maritime network layout denser.