First foreign trade vessel via China's Pinglu Canal arrives in Vietnam

A welcoming ceremony is held at Vietnam's Can Tho Port for the first foreign trade vessel to sail through China's Pinglu Canal, Sept. 24, 2026. (Photo by Duong Huy/Xinhua)

A welcoming ceremony was held at Vietnam's Can Tho Port on Thursday for the first foreign trade vessel to sail through China's Pinglu Canal.

The container vessel departed from Nanning Port in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Sept. 16, sailed through the Pinglu Canal and arrived at Can Tho Port on Wednesday.

It carried 252 twenty-foot equivalent units of cargo, including wood panels, sodium sulfate and auto parts, mainly from western China.

Hu Huaping, chairman of Beibu Gulf Port Group, said the group will work with Can Tho Port and other partners to develop two-way cargo flows, improve services and enhance logistics connectivity.

The 134.2-km canal, stretching from Hengzhou in Guangxi to the Beibu Gulf, opened on Sept. 16. It is the closest maritime outlet for much of southwest China.

Designed for vessels of up to 5,000 tonnes, the canal shortens the inland waterway journey for goods from southwest China to the sea by more than 560 km compared with traditional routes through ports in Guangdong Province.