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the world's most watched "living room of the great powers" opens the "china-africa time".

the beijing summit of the forum on china-africa cooperation was held from september 4 to 6. focusing on the theme of "jointly promoting modernization and building a high-level china-africa community with a shared future", china and africa jointly drew a new blueprint for cooperative development and witnessed a new height in china-africa relations.

africa is an important supporter, participant and beneficiary of the joint construction of the belt and road initiative and the next "blue ocean" of the global market.

enterprises are the main force in advancing into this "blue ocean". as a "pioneer", shandong port yantai port successfully opened up the bauxite "maritime silk road" from guinea in africa to yantai, china at the end of 2014. two days ago, the annual shipping volume of china-africa general cargo liner exceeded 2 million tons, and the china-africa two-way logistics golden channel ushered in a new record.

over the past 10 years, this 11,400-nautical-mile popular route has brought goods to africa and has become a golden bridge on the sea that carries the flow of mineral resources and the export of "made in china" products. it is playing an increasingly important role in writing a wonderful chapter in china-africa economic and trade cooperation with unprecedented vitality and momentum.

“maritime opportunities” under the national strategy

perhaps the greatest value of the opportunities of the times lies in taking the initiative and seizing the chance for change.

for yantai port, the opportunity comes from the belt and road initiative. infrastructure construction is the cornerstone of africa's development, and improving infrastructure conditions is the general expectation and urgent desire of african countries. as one of the 15 ports that are key to the construction of the country's belt and road initiative, shandong port yantai port has keenly taken advantage of this "east wind".

as we all know, guinea is the largest bauxite producer in africa. at the end of 2014, yantai port, weiqiao group and shipping carrier weili group conducted repeated analysis and consultation on guinea bauxite overseas projects. the three parties joined hands with guinea ums to form a "win alliance" to jointly build a bauxite "sea-river + sea-rail + highway" full-process logistics chain from guinea mines in africa to chinese terminal manufacturers.

subsequently, a series of intensive and effective "big moves" gradually made this bold and landmark vision a reality:

on july 20, 2015, the boké port terminal project in guinea was successfully put into operation. despite the harsh natural environment and scarce construction materials, yantai port created the chinese speed of "building a terminal in 100 days".

on november 16, 2015, the first shipload of guinean bauxite arrived safely at yantai port, marking the official opening of the china-africa logistics channel.

on december 1, 2021, yantai port jinbo joint port was officially put into operation, adding a "strong engine" to the maritime logistics channel of china's aluminum industry supply chain...

this multimodal transport full-process logistics solution, which is more than 11,400 nautical miles long and spans the pacific ocean, indian ocean and atlantic ocean, not only locks in the comprehensive logistics costs, but also provides customers with comprehensive services in terms of packaged ports, waterways, railways, and road transportation capacity, realizing the "port to door" full-process transportation, creating a successful case of multimodal transport of bulk cargo in the world's ocean transportation field, and is praised by the industry as the "aluminum silk road".

in 2023, this "silk road" record was broken, and the annual bauxite throughput of yantai port exceeded 120 million tons, ranking first in the world for bauxite imports.

opening up the china-africa two-way logistics golden channel

the opening of the "channel" has brought new opportunities. on the other side of the earth, yantai port plays the role of the main export port for "made in china" to africa.

in response to the needs of economic development in west africa, yantai port and winning group yuanwang logistics company launched the "yantai, china - west africa" ​​bulk cargo route to the west coast of africa. specifically, it uses return ships to ship steel, heavy machinery and other production and living materials to africa, realizing "re-going and re-returning", and turning the china-africa logistics channel from "one-way" to "two-way".

on january 28, 2021, 500 c80 open railway cars customized and purchased by the guinea railway company for the dasheng railway were "loaded on board" at yantai port one after another, marking the normalization of the "return" mode of the china-africa logistics corridor; in the same year, the guinea kimbo joint port company was officially put into use, taking practical actions to once again upgrade and expand the china-africa two-way logistics golden channel.

in order to make the "china-africa two-way logistics golden channel" more refined and faster, yantai port has opened the yantai (longkou)-africa general cargo route, which can arrange voyages at any time according to cargo volume, and provide african customers with value-added services such as sorting, processing, ship chartering and booking, making the "china-africa express" service a leading brand in africa.

at this point, yantai port’s china-africa route has achieved full coverage of african coastal countries.

from 0 to 1, from 1 to n. it can be said that the opening of the china-africa two-way logistics golden channel is a vivid practice of yantai port serving the domestic and international dual circulation and accelerating the high-quality development of the "belt and road". so far, "made in china" has a stronger, better and more convenient way to go overseas.

data is the most convincing. according to statistics, since its opening, the route has completed more than 400 shipments to africa, with a total return cargo shipment of about 8.4 million tons, firmly ranking first in china's trade with africa. the boké and jinbo ports operated and managed by yantai port have a cumulative output of more than 360 million tons of bauxite, accounting for more than half of guinea's total bauxite exports.

annual shipping volume of general cargo liner exceeds 2 million tons

let's look at a set of data first. the 2024 edition of the blue book "china-africa jointly building the belt and road initiative development report" shows that in the past decade, chinese companies have signed a total of more than us$700 billion in contracted engineering projects in africa, and africa has become china's second largest overseas contracted engineering market.

let's look at another piece of news. on september 2, after unloading 190,000 tons of guinean bauxite, the "weili team" cargo ship used the empty cabin on the return trip to carry 17,000 tons of engineering vehicles and building materials to return to africa, marking that the annual shipping volume of china-africa general cargo liner at shandong port yantai port exceeded 2 million tons four months ahead of schedule, setting a historical record since the route was opened in 2015.

these two pieces of information show that the demand for chinese goods in the african market is growing.

how to meet the strong demand? we need to improve logistics efficiency and use the power of "technological innovation".

to this end, yantai port closely follows the pace of shandong port's smart green port construction, and uses innovation to drive the improvement of the bauxite logistics chain's shipping capacity. a series of innovative achievements, including the world's leading ship unloading automation technology, ship loading automation technology, vehicle loading automation technology, and intelligent tank cleaning technology, have made the supply chain hub bauxite terminal in the west port area of ​​yantai port a world-class specialized terminal. these technological innovations not only improve the efficiency of dry bulk cargo loading and unloading, but also provide a solid guarantee for the efficient operation of the entire logistics chain of china-africa bauxite.

on july 18, 2023, the supply chain hub bauxite terminal in the west port area of ​​yantai port was selected as a world-class specialized terminal, marking another solid step forward for yantai port of shandong port in building a first-class supply chain comprehensive service system based on the port.

only through "intelligent" two-way empowerment can we achieve win-win symbiosis. yantai port has independently developed a new model of "intelligent tallying + joint loading" for general cargo loading and unloading, striving to make the best use of every "china-africa liner".

with the support of this model, managers can get the best reference for decision-making, and customers will receive "one-click query" real-time perception service throughout the process, making the transportation of piece goods simple, messy but not chaotic, and smooth all the way.

because of this "smartness", yantai port has successfully used more than 80 special tools to match hundreds of working methods, effectively improving terminal operation efficiency by 40%, and tailoring "universal interface" solutions for different needs to attract more cargo to the port for operation. in 2023, the china-africa general cargo throughput of yantai port will reach 1.503 million tons, achieving an "explosive" growth in general cargo throughput, providing strong momentum for serving the new development pattern of "dual circulation" and promoting the construction of the "belt and road".

on september 2, the press center of the 2024 forum on china-africa cooperation summit held its first briefing. a relevant official from the national development and reform commission stated that over the past 11 years, china-africa cooperation in jointly building the "belt and road" has transformed from ideas into actions, from visions into reality, injecting new impetus and vitality into the economic and social development of african countries, and providing important support for accelerating the building of a china-africa community with a shared future.

undoubtedly, in the context of globalization, the innovative practices of chinese companies are making china's opportunities concrete and accessible.

ymg omnimedia reporter tong jiayi correspondent zhang lei

editor: wang xiuqi