On July 8th, a grand sailing ceremony for MV YONG SHENG's round trip via Arctic Route was held at Dalian port. The delegates, including Mr. Du Yuan Quan，Chairman of the Supervision Committee of COSCO Group delegated by the State Council, Mr. Li Yun Peng, the member of Board of Directors and General Manager of COSCO Group, Mr. Hui Kai, Chairman of Board of Directors of Dalian Port Corporation, Ltd., Mr. Wang Yi Dong, General Manager of Angang Steel Company Limited, Mr. Jia Fu Yuan, Deputy Director General of Communications Department of Liaoning Province, Mr. Liu Yan, Deputy Mayor of Dalian City, Capt. Han Guo Min, CEO of COSCO SHIPPING, Mr. Li Zhen Yu, Secretary of CPC Committee of COSCO SHIPPING, Mr. Weng Ji Qiang, Deputy General Manager of COSCO SHIPPING, and others attended the ceremony to see MV YONG SHENG off and wished another successful journey for the vessel via Arctic Route. The sailing ceremony was presided over by Ms. Sun Yue Ying, Chief Accountant of COSCO Group.

From Aug. 15th to Sept. 10th, 2015, MV YONG SHENG, owned by COSCO SHIPPING, successfully accomplished the first voyage via Arctic Northeast Route, and become the first Chinese merchant vessel that successfully sailed to Europe via Arctic Northeast Route. To further explore commercial utility of North Polar area, expand customer-catered lines, accumulate navigation experiences in the ice zone, and actively carry out the Group's environmental responsibility, COSCO Group decided to launch the voyage again via the Arctic Route with an upgraded round trip.

At the ceremony, Mr. Li Yun Peng expressed that the Arctic Northeast Route rendered large potential and promoting space in reducing carbon emissions pollution and lowering voyage costs. As a state-owned shipping fleet who shares a common fate with P.R. China, COSCO Group had the responsibilities and obligations to continue exploring the resources along the Arctic Route for China's shipping companies and customers, and made new contributions.

The customer representative of COSCO SHIPPING, Mr. Wang Yi Dong, General Manager of Angang Steel Company Limited, sent his best wish to MV YONG SHENG's new journey. He said that the Arctic Route explored by COSCO SHIPPING had greatly shortened the distance between Asia and Europe, and this was not only beneficial to the export and expansion of European market share, but also significantly cut down the logistics costs of enterprises. More to the point, customers of COSCO indicated that they would support positively COSCO's Arctic Route to achieve normalized operation.

MV YONG SHENG is scheduled to load cargoes at Shanghai, Lianyungang, and Jiangyin after the sailing ceremony was held at Dalian on July 22nd morning. With fully loaded WTGs and steels, MV YONG SHENG officially departed from Jiangyin, starting his round trip via Arctic Route.

As planned, MV YONG SHENG will enter Bering Strait on early August (Beijing time), and arrive at Sweden Varberg Port in mid August. The return journey will be at the west entrance of Vilkitsky Strait at the end of September, and back to China in mid-to-end October.

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