Following the release of the China-U.S. Geneva Joint Statement on Economic and Trade Talks on May 12, which marked phased achievements in trade negotiations, market confidence surged. Traders raced to meet the time window for concentrated shipments, triggering a short-term peak in cargo exports. However, this has exacerbated challenges such as tight shipping capacity and rising freight rates in the global market, posing risks to the stable supply chains of foreign trade enterprises.
As a world-leading container shipping company, COSCO SHIPPING Lines (a subsidiary of COSCO SHIPPING Holdings) swiftly responded to market demands. By expanding global routes, strengthening sea-rail intermodal transport with digital intelligence solutions, and deepening industrial chain collaboration, the company has established a service system integrating maritime-land operations, digital intelligence, and full-chain synergy. These efforts inject strong momentum into stabilizing foreign trade and securing supply chains.
Expanding Global Route Network, Unblocking Key Maritime Logistics Channels
Facing surging cargo demand, COSCO SHIPPING Lines leverages the Ocean Alliance to continuously enhance global capacity supply. By optimizing trunk route networks, increasing frequencies in core markets, and opening emerging market corridors, the company has built “maritime express lanes” for cargo shipments.
As the core hub of China-U.S. trade, the North American market is served with differentiated products: Southwest U.S. employs 10 routes covering ports in China/Southeast Asia/Japan/Korea, with optimized AAC route adding Yangpu Port call to establish “Southeast Asia-Yangpu-SWUS” transshipment corridor and boost regional cargo efficiency; Northwest U.S. deploys 5 routes connecting Chinese ports, providing expedited delivery to Prince Rupert; U.S. East/Gulf Coast operates 10 diversified routes, enabling rapid Southeast Asia-U.S. East Coast transit via AWE4 route’s Yangpu Port call.
In emerging market development, COSCO SHIPPING Lines launched the direct Nansha-South America West Coast route, facilitating the “New Era Asia-Latin America Land-Sea Corridor” to deepen connectivity between the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and Latin America. Addressing high-timeliness demands from emerging industries like smart manufacturing (electrical/electronics), new energy vehicles, and cross-border e-commerce, the company leveraged Indonesia's CSE/YIX Express service to coordinate with Nansha Port in upgrading trunk capacity, achieving “same-day cutoff and next-day sailing,” thus meeting precision timing requirements for high-end manufacturing supply chains.
Sea-Rail Intermodal Transport and Digital Intelligence Empowerment: Building Dual Hub Corridors Connecting Land and Sea
To address port congestion hindering logistics efficiency, COSCO SHIPPING Lines focuses on sea-rail intermodal transport. By deploying inland nodes, innovating transport models, and deepening digital intelligence applications, the company extends port functions into vast hinterlands, establishing a three-dimensional logistics network of “maritime hub ports + inland dry ports.”
In Northeast and North China, COSCO SHIPPING Lines launched dedicated rail services in May including “Zhanggutai Station-Jinzhou Port" and "Chifeng Daban Station-Jinzhou Port,” integrating fertilizers, steel, and FMCG into full-chain logistics via corridors like “Jinzhou-Xiaochantan-Overseas.” Dalian Container Transport achieved seamless road-rail connectivity, resolving last-mile challenges for molasses and fertilizer clients by eliminating inland enterprises' port access difficulties and high costs, creating a new logistics experience of “factory-to-port direct connection and inland-to-global access.”
The “Danyang Model” in the Yangtze River Delta has become an innovative benchmark for rail-sea intermodal transport. COSCO Shipping Lines’ pioneering “chartered cabin + daily service” operation mode enables 8-hour direct access to Shanghai’s Luchao Port, significantly outperforming traditional fragmented services that take 2-3 days. Its innovative “all-inclusive pricing” approach consolidates rail and trucking costs, reducing overall logistics expenses by 20%-30% compared to road transport. The one-stop service model allows manufacturers to consider cargo loaded at factories as already entering port procedures, substantially enhancing front-end supply chain efficiency and establishing itself as a "golden passage" for manufactured goods going global.
COSCO Shipping Lines drives deep integration of digital intelligence technologies. Through its SynConHub platform, customers can customize end-to-end logistics services—from warehousing, trucking, and customs clearance at origin ports to ocean shipping and destination port delivery—with full online operations and visual tracking.
Deepening Industrial Chain Synergy to Build an Integrated "Shipping + Ports + Logistics" Ecosystem
Against the backdrop of profound global supply chain restructuring, COSCO Shipping Lines leverages its integrated operational strengths in "container shipping + ports + related logistics," deepening collaboration with the logistics supply chain division of COSCO Shipping. Through resource integration, service innovation, and standardized practices, it has established a service ecosystem spanning the entire industrial chain.
COSCO Shipping Lines and COSCO Shipping Logistics Supply Chain are accelerating the joint development of five domestic and international supply chain platforms covering key nodes in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and North America, continuously enhancing supply chain resilience. For high-value cargo such as chemicals and refrigerated containers, the two parties collaborate to create specialized solutions, establishing end-to-end hazardous goods control mechanisms and enabling full-process temperature-controlled services. They have also strengthened synergy in trucking, warehousing, and customs clearance, achieving functional reuse of supply chain business systems. This reduces information barriers and redundant operations, significantly improves logistics efficiency, effectively lowers logistics costs across all aspects, and enriches the new concept of "boundaryless collaboration."
From expanding and densifying maritime routes to extending deeper inland passages, from digital intelligence enablement in transportation to ecosystem synergy across the entire industrial chain, COSCO Shipping Lines’ initiatives consistently prioritize customer needs as the core driver for optimizing foreign trade supply chains. These measures not only alleviate current capacity pressure amid the U.S.-China trade shipment surge but also establish a market demand-oriented global supply chain resilience system through deep integration into customer value chains.
Moving forward, COSCO Shipping Lines will continue centering on client requirements, propelled by innovation to elevate service capabilities. This commitment aims to stabilize global supply chains and contribute greater momentum to high-quality foreign trade development.
Source from: China Transport News