The significant milestone in the history of the Port of Qingdao was witnessed by chairman and president of Qingdao Port Group Chang Dechuan, Maersk North Asia CEO Tim Smith and customer representatives.
"Being the eighth biggest port in the world today, Qingdao has been growing with an astonishing speed in the recent years," said Mr Smith. "The advanced infrastructure, impressive port productivity, and second-to-none service level of the port has won it the trust and support of carriers including Maersk Line."
The Danish shipping group invested in the Qingdao Qianwan Container Terminal (QQCT) in 2003. The following year, Maersk Line expanded its feeder service in Qingdao to deploy direct calls at Qingdao for its European trades, and later launched a service between Qingdao and the US west coast. Maersk Line has 11 global services calling at Qingdao Port.