Yangtze opens first direct container shipping route to southeast Asia

The first direct container shipping line linking China's Yangtze River basin and Southeast Asia opened Thursday.

The regular service will be operated once a week by Taicang Container Lines Co. Ltd. The container ship departs from and arrives at Taicang Port in east China's Jiangsu Province, and will travel as far as Laem Chabang and Bangkok, Thailand, and Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.

The line is expected to help import and export companies along the Yangtze River and the Yangtze River Delta save about 50 million yuan (about 7.6 million U.S. dollars) a year in logistics costs.

Taichang Port is the river's largest container port.

ASEAN is China's third largest trade partner, with bilateral trade volume reaching 2.93 trillion yuan last year.