The three container shipping alliances are still short of 36 ships, or 10% of the required tonnage, to entirely fulfill their 25 Asia – Europe loops as of 10 May.

Despite record newbuilding deliveries this year, and 1.14 million TEUs delivered so far, the Red Sea crisis has soaked up all available tonnage.

Alphaliner’s report says, “Taking into account that the average vessel size on this trade currently stands at 14,150 TEUs, some 509,400 extra slots are still needed. This represents 9.6% of the total capacity required to guarantee weekly sailings for all alliance loops.”

On Sunday, a welcoming ceremony of a 10,000-ton vessel was held at the Lohuang Port of Chongqing /Southwest China/ as part of the first test voyage on the Zhoushan-Chongqing direct river-sea route, which is the first such route in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

The movement of ships through the Bosporus is temporarily not carried out due to the breakdown of a vessel in the northern part of the strait. This was reported by the General Directorate of the Turkish Coast Guard on its page in X.

“The 64-meter cargo vessel Brabus [Cameroon-flagged] had a steering device breakdown near the northern entrance to the Bosphorus Strait,. Movement of vessels on the Bosporus is temporarily stopped in both directions", - reported the agency.

A tugboat and a rescue boat were promptly sent to the vessel. After the Brabus is towed away from the line of traffic to a safe zone, the strait will be reopened to maritime traffic.

Four crewmen of a Chinese domestic cargo ship are missing after the vessel hit Jiujiang Bridge in Foshan in China's Guangdong province on 22 April.

The ship, whose name was not released, was carrying 4,900 tonnes of rolled steel along the Yangtze River from Fuzhou in Fujian province to Heshan in Guangdong province, when at 9.20 pm local time, it hit the base of one of the bridge pillars.

Built in 1988, Jiujiang Bridge forms part of the G240 National Highway connecting Foshan and Heshan.

Water started entering the cargo hold of the vessel, causing it to capsize. Seven of the 11 crew members were rescued, while the other four are missing.

After the incident, Foshan Municipal Party Committee Secretary Zheng Ke, Foshan Mayor Bai Tao, Guangdong Maritime Safety Administration Deputy Director Guo Weibin, among others, went to the scene to direct the rescue work.

At 6 am local time on 23 April, more than 300 police officers and maritime rescue personnel were deployed to search for the missing seafarers, without success. The search and rescue operations are still ongoing, and to facilitate the search, other ships are prohibited from entering the waters 3km upstream and downstream from Jiujiang Bridge.

Civil engineering experts examined the bridge and found no serious damage to its main structure but the base of the pillar, designed to withstand allisions, had scratches, and further appraisal of the bridge's structural safety was required.

In June 2007, a sand carrier hit Jiujiang Bridge, causing a 200m stretch of the bridge to collapse. Four cars on the highway, along with two construction workers, fell into the river below, killing eight persons.

China Southern Airlines said its inaugural flight from Beijing to Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday was a success and marked the launch of the first direct passenger air route from mainland China to Saudi Arabia.

According to the carrier, flights on an Airbus A330-300 airliner will be operated on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The aircraft will depart from Daxing International Airport in Beijing at 15:10 local time and land at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh at 20:10 local time. The flight duration will be about 10 hours.

At the same time, the return flight will depart Riyadh at 22:10 local time and arrive in the Chinese capital at 12:00 the following day. The duration of the return flight will take about 8 hours and 50 minutes.

Zhang Dongsheng of China Southern Airlines' marketing department said that in recent years, cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative has brought practical results: China and Saudi Arabia continue to deepen economic, cultural and tourism cooperation.

He said the opening of a regular direct air route will further promote humanitarian and trade and economic exchanges between the two countries.