The Grand Alliance group, one of the world's shipping giants, has launched a new route between north China's port city of Tianjin and the US east coast.

The Grand Alliance -- comprising Hapag-Lloyd Container Line (HLCL), Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK), Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) and Malaysia International Shipping Corp. (MISC) -- will operate eight container vessels on the new line, which was opened on Thursday.

The new service will cover the ports of Dalian, Qingdao, Ningbo and Shanghai in China, Pusan in the Republic of Korea and New York.

The Grand Alliance has previously launched two other ocean routes between Tianjin and the US west coast, and between Tianjin and Europe, but it is the first shipping route connecting the US east coast with the port of Tianjin, said Yu Rumin, president of the Tianjin Port (Group) Co. Ltd., on Friday.

China plans to make Tianjin Port in north China an international shipping center.

The world's top 20 shipping lines have all opened services at Tianjin Port, which has now more than 100 container shipping lines and trade links with more than 400 ports in some 180 countries and regions, Yu said.

Statistics show that the Tianjin Port handled nearly 3.36 million TEUs of containers in the first six months, up 21 percent year-on-year.

(Xinhua News Agency July 7, 2007)