China's Guangzhou Port, the largest shipping hub in the country's south, opened a direct route to Chancay port in Peru on Tuesday, state broadcaster CCTV reported, a move it said would reduce logistics costs and bolster trade with Latin America.
Located north of Lima, Chancay recently began operations with non-stop voyages to and from Asia, accommodating the largest vessels on South America's Pacific coast.
The announcement comes as Beijing aims to further strengthen its relationship with resource rich Latin America amid trade tensions with the United States.
On Tuesday, the 300 metre vessel COSCO Volga was loading more than 400 containers of refrigerators, household appliance accessories, auto parts and other commodities produced in Guangdong onto a ship, CCTV said.
The direct route reaches Peru in about 30 days and reduces logistics costs by around 20%, the broadcaster said.
The new route will accelerate the connection between Guangzhou Nansha Port and Latin American ports such as Mexico's Port of Manzanillo and Chile's Port of San Antonio.
Household appliances, electronic products, furniture and toys are among some of the items that are seeing an acceleration of exports to Latin America, CCTV said, adding that high quality fruits and seafood from the Pacific coast as well as red wine from the Andes will appear in China faster.
Chancay port's first phase, built by Cosco in a $1.4 billion investment, was inaugurated in November by Peruvian President Dina Boluarte and Chinese President Xi Jinping during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Lima.
A 15-berth, deep-water port, was heralded by Xi as the successful start of a "21st century maritime Silk Road" and part of China's Belt and Road Initiative, its modern revival of the ancient Silk Road trading route.
China is expected to spend billions more as Beijing and Lima work to position it as a major shipping hub between Asia and South America.
(Reuters)
