The Silk Road Maritime network, China's first international maritime logistics platform serving the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), has continued to grow rapidly, shipping 26 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of container cargo since its launch.
According to the latest statistics, the container throughput on the Silk Road Maritime routes exceeded 5.4 million TEUs in 2025, marking a year-on-year increase of 9.11 percent. Bulk and general cargo shipments exceeded 12.27 million tons, up 26.4 percent from the previous year.
As a major project under China's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021–2025), the network plays a vital role in promoting the high-quality development of the BRI. Since the inaugural route was launched in east China's Xiamen in 2018, the network has so far handled over 26 million TEUs of container cargo and more than 34 million tons of bulk and general cargo in total.
The network has expanded from just 16 routes at inception to 148 international routes, covering 150 ports in 48 countries and regions, including Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.
According to Zhang Tao, deputy director of the port supervision department of the General Administration of Customs, China is intensifying its efforts to advance the development of multimodal transport systems.
"We are promoting the deep integration of Silk Road Maritime network with the China-Europe Railway Express and the Western Land-Sea New Corridor. This will create a multidimensional, multimodal logistics network to reduce cross-border logistics costs and improve customs clearance efficiency, thereby injecting fresh momentum into the high-quality development of the BRI," he said.
China's Silk Road Maritime network ships over 26 mln TEUs
