¡¡¡¡Sept 26th, 2008 marked the 30th anniversary of the formal opening of China's first international container shipping route (China to Australia). On that date thirty years ago, the COSCO container ship "Pingxiangcheng", set off from Shanghai, heading for Sydney and Melbourne in Australia. This feat put an end to China's absence of shipping container transport, and opened a new chapter in Chinese modern marine history.
¡¡¡¡After nearly 30 years of development, China has become one of the major international container transport nations, with a container fleet whose scale and technology leads the world. By 2007, the number of China's international container liner shipping companies had increased from one (COSCO Group) to 180, and container capacity had reached 1,070,000 TEUs. Among these companies, both COSCO and China Shipping Container Lines have been ranked among the world's top 10 container shipping companies. Driven by strong demand for container shipping, Shanghai Jihai Shipping Co. Ltd., Minsheng Shipping Co and other companies have also developed rapidly.

¡¡¡¡Over 30 years of development, Chinese container shipping has gained a good reputation in the industry abroad.

¡¡¡¡Tom Behrens-Sorensen, Chairmen and Chief Executive of Maersk (China) Co., Ltd., said, "Over the past 30 years, China's container shipping industry has made a long-term development, China's shipping and logistics are continuing to reform to meet the complex demand of ever-changing markets and customers."

¡¡¡¡Frederic Campagnac, Deputy General Manager of CMA CGM (China) Shipping Group, commented: "China's international container shipping has now matured significantly. There's a lot of space to improve multimodal transport and logistics, and China also has potential to develop international container transit. CMA Group will, as always, be committed to development in China."

¡¡¡¡Chairman of Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha(China) Co., Ltd., said, "I can not help but feel sincere admiration about China's wise decision to open up container ship routes and for the unremitting efforts made by so many towards development."

¡¡¡¡Chen Baiting, Chairman of Wanhai Lines Ltd, Taiwan's third largest shipping company, said, "China's shipping industry has been growing strongly, as has her international reputation, with more and more ports now well-known abroad."