Sea route in Taicang boosts Sino-Japan economic, trade cooperation

The sea route between Taicang, a county-level city in Suzhou and Shimonoseki in Japan has contributed significantly to Sino-Japan economic and trade cooperation over the past 14 years, local media reported on March 26.

Suzhou is seen as being a hub for Japanese companies in China, with it being home to more than 2,000.

Naturally, a high trade volume requires a large transport capacity. Therefore, in order to meet the transportation demands of foreign trade companies with Japan, the Taicang – Shimonoseki sea route was launched in 2006.

Thanks to the sea route, Taicang port accounts for 80 percent of Chinese mainland's imports of advanced and sophisticated equipment from Japan.

To date, Panasonic Corp, Sharp Corp, Canon Inc and dozens of other renowned import and export companies have selected Taicang port to deliver their products.

The sea route's source of supply has also been expanded from cities in South Jiangsu to Hangzhou, Shanghai and cities along the upper-middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

To satisfy the timely transportation needs of Japanese companies for electronic goods, semiconductors, auto parts, agricultural goods and seafood, the Taicang – Shimonoseki sea route offers a rapid transit service to their clients, which ensures goods can be delivered in three to four days, three days faster than ordinary sea transportation.

Recently, a roll-on-roll-off ship Utopia manufactured by the Suzhou Shimonoseki Ferry Co was put into service for the sea route.

"The new ship will greatly improve the route's punctuality," said Zhang Wei, deputy general manager of the ship's agency company in Taicang, noting that the route between Taicang and Shimonoseki has a high punctuality and the speed of delivery is not too dissimilar to the goods being transported by air.