Qingdao Port: Unload and Load Immediately, No Empty Returns!

On February 8th, at the pulp terminal of Qingdao Port, Shandong Port, the “Songquejian” vessel, which was carrying imported Canadian pulp, completed unloading. Instead of heading to the next port with empty cargo holds as per traditional routes, it loaded equipment such as oil pumps, pipelines, and other goods on-site and then sailed directly to North America.

It is noteworthy that this “immediate reloading and bidirectional full load” arrangement is not a temporary cargo operation but a return to Qingdao Port’s efficient logistics model. This model requires Qingdao Port to take the lead in resource coordination: proactively engaging with shipping companies, organizing matching return export cargoes, and synchronizing terminal and customs clearance operations to turn “return trip with empty cargo” into “return trip with cargo.”

This indicates that, amid increasing route uncertainties and cost pressures, ports are innovatively playing new roles in the supply chain. Transitioning from solely focusing on loading and unloading efficiency, ports are now providing supply chain organization capabilities. The “return and re-enter” model not only reduces customers’ overall logistics costs and improves cargo movement efficiency but also elevates port service quality and supply chain value, injecting new vitality into high-quality development.

Long-standing issues in pulp transportation: empty return trips

In pulp transportation, empty return trips have long been a persistent industry problem. Traditionally, ships fully loaded with pulp arriving at ports often return empty or with inefficient cargo loading, which not only raises operating costs for shipping companies but also limits the organization and timeliness of inland export sources.

Ultimately, this structural gap in routes leads to diluted profits for shipping companies, unstable berth allocations for cargo owners, and ports remaining focused on “scale throughput” rather than “network value-added.”

Port-led organization of “return and re-enter”

In response to industry challenges, Qingdao Port has been exploring an efficient logistics model of “return and re-enter” in recent years.

This model requires ports to shift from passive waiting for cargo to actively organizing freight flows: around pulp ships arriving at port, the port takes the lead in coordinating with shipping companies, cargo owners, and inland industry clients to precisely match return export cargoes, extending the unidirectional import operation into a “bidirectional closed-loop” organization.

Specifically, pulp from Uruguay and coal destined for Europe can be connected bidirectionally on the same vessel; after unloading Brazilian pulp, return space is quickly filled with equipment like excavators, enabling a swift return to the American market. Sinotrans Maritime believes that the essence of “return and re-enter” is to reconfigure dispersed cargo flows into tradable voyage segments with high utilization, with ports acting as “organizers” rather than just “loaders and unloaders.”

Value realization, win-win for all parties

Reports indicate that this model can help shipping companies and customers reduce overall logistics costs by approximately 10%–15%.

• For shipping companies, completing both import unloading and export loading at one port reduces ineffective waiting and deadheading, lowers fuel and scheduling costs, and enhances route plan controllability.

• For inland foreign trade enterprises, carrying return voyage ships offers more stable berth space and timeliness, providing a more economical channel for bulk commodities like soda ash, building materials, as well as engineering machinery and agricultural equipment exports.

• For ports, reducing deadheading also contributes to carbon reduction. More importantly, service capabilities shift from “loading and unloading efficiency” to “supply chain organization and resource allocation,” fostering route loyalty and cargo source aggregation.

Qingdao Port states: “As the ‘return and re-enter’ system continues to improve, Qingdao Port is actively developing a shipping network that serves global trade, creating tangible economic value for partners, and injecting strong momentum into supporting the new development pattern and the Belt and Road Initiative for interconnectivity among countries.”

Why can Qingdao Port succeed?

To keep the “return and re-enter” system stable, sustainable hardware and software support is essential.

On the software side, Qingdao Port boasts high levels of intelligent operation. Relying on fully automated bulk pulp terminals, it enhances the continuity of unloading and loading operations and on-site resource scheduling efficiency; through AI recognition of electronic ship diagrams, it monitors cargo distribution inside holds, and with the “Beichen” system, it coordinates intelligent guidance for transport vehicles (IGV) and automated cranes, ensuring smooth switching between unloading and loading and maintaining steady operation rhythm.

In terms of cross-organizational collaboration, Qingdao Port developed the “PulpCrane” platform, integrating logistics, trade, finance, and other resources, connecting the “cargo owner-port-ship company” chain, providing digital services to 45 pulp mills and traders upstream and downstream, and working with customs to advance smart port collaboration, reducing international logistics process times.

Self-strengthening is also crucial. Besides robust intelligent facilities, Qingdao Port’s strategic geographic location plays a key role. In terms of transportation support, it leverages its multimodal rail-sea network to extend service radius inland, with 56 inland ports and 86 rail-sea container trains enhancing cargo collection and distribution capabilities, turning return cargo from “occasional” to “stable and scheduled.”

Sinotrans Maritime believes that the methodology of Qingdao Port’s model is worth learning. By stepping outside existing process systems, proactively coordinating resources, locking in return cargoes in advance, managing yard and operational capacity, and linking customs clearance with multimodal transport, the port achieves integrated coordination of market, yard, and on-site operations. This reduces redundant steps like yard storage and short-term transshipment, transforming efficiency advantages into perceptible cost and timeliness benefits for customers.

For other ports, instead of competing on loading and unloading efficiency alone, the focus should shift to developing organizational capabilities to turn empty return trips into full load trips—this is a more scarce and valuable ability in the supply chain era.

Looking ahead, as the world’s largest pulp import port and a hub serving northern and central-west China and Japan-Korea markets, Qingdao Port will promote deeper integration of “return and re-enter” with multimodal transport systems, developing richer logistics products and expanding from point-to-point models to systematic solutions. For the industry, this means that “unload and then load” is not just a port case but a path for ports to participate in global supply chain reorganization: using replicable organizational capabilities to turn structural pain points into sustained efficiency and profit growth.