Evergreen readies first direct mainland voyage in decades

    



Updated December 11



Peter T. Leach / The JOURNAL of COMMERCE ONLINE



Evergreen Marine confirmed that one of its container ships will sail from Kaohsiung in Taiwan on Dec. 15 directly to the mainland Port of Tianjin, inaugurating what will be the first direct sea link between the two countries in 59 years.



Evergreen's 1,168-TEU Uni-Adroit is scheduled to call Tianjin's New Port on the North mainland-Taiwan Service before calling the northern mainland ports of Dalian and Qingdao on its trip back to Taiwan.



Since 1949, any ship sailing from Taiwan to mainland has had to take the "fig-leaf" route through Japanese waters before calling at a mainland port.



The direct service comes after Beijing and Taipei signed a series of agreements Nov. 4 to expand transportation links and postal services, and address food safety issues.



Taiwan-based Evergreen did not release the new service's frequency or transit times.



Meanwhile, four container ships owned and operated by Taiwan's Wan Hai Lines, Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp., Taiwan Navigation Co. and mainland's Huarong Marine Co. are also scheduled to depart Dec. 15 from the northern Port of Keelung, according to the Taiwan News.



Also on Dec. 15, a bulk carrier owned and operated by Da Sheng Marine Co. is scheduled to depart from Taichung Harbor on central Taiwan's western coast for mainland's southeastern Port of Fuzhou, to load gravel for Taiwan.