A bulk cargo ship carrying 10,000 metric tons of soybeans set sail from Zhoushan in Zhejiang province on Feb 17. Heading to E'zhou in Hubei province, the ship's departure marked the establishment of the 6th direct grain shipping route to Hubei, following successful routes to Huangshi, Huanggang, and Wuhan.

The initiation of this new route serves as a cornerstone for future plans to designate ports in Hubei as pivotal nodes for collaboration, aimed at creating a direct bulk cargo distribution center, noted Liu Yang, a representative of the Zhoushan port and maritime bureau.

Liu also highlighted that Zhoushan embarked on its first river-and-sea coordinated ship voyage in 2018 and has since established eight direct shipping routes for the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, encompassing provinces such as Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, and Anhui.

In 2023, the city achieved a total river-sea transportation volume of 321 million tons. Notably, imports of grain, iron ore, oil, and various other commodities are efficiently transported to the Yangtze River mainline through the river-and-sea transportation mode.

Currently, Zhoushan's river-and-sea direct shipping fleet comprises 16 vessels with a combined carrying capacity of 214,000 tons.

Furthermore, several additional vessels, ranging from 10,000 to 16,000 tons, are presently under construction and slated for operation in 2024. Once in service, these new additions will elevate the total shipping capacity of Zhoushan's river-sea direct shipping fleet to over 250,000 tons.