The total trade volume between Yantai, a coastal city in East China's Shandong province, and Africa reached 11.98 billion yuan ($1.71 billion) this year, growing by 26.1 percent year-on-year, according to local customs authorities.

In recent years, Yantai has been committed to integrating itself into the country's overall development, and responded actively to the country's call to achieve a higher level of opening-up. Yantai Port in the city has also made contributions to the high-quality construction of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and through years of development, a "China-Africa Two-way Logistics Golden Channel" was established, which has injected a strong impetus into China-Africa trade relations.

Compared with 10 years ago, Yantai's trade with Africa was limited due to high shipping costs and low operation efficiency. In 2013, China proposed the BRI, and Yantai Port responded quickly by cooperating with its partners to launch the bauxite trade business in Guinea. In 2015, Yantai Port started the construction of the Boke Port in Guinea, and the port was finished and put into operation within four months, which has promoted the sustainable growth of Yantai Port's bauxite imports.

With further development of BRI, Yantai has witnessed a boom in trade with African countries, and the shipping routes, commodity categories, and the import and export cargo volume from Yantai to Africa were also increased, creating "a highway on the sea" for China-Africa trade.

Since January, a number of new direct sea routes linking Yantai and Africa have been opened, which service 18 ports in 10 African countries. The total freight volume is expected to exceed 1.8 million metric tons this year.

Despite the lingering global COVID-19 pandemic this year, Yantai Port has launched new services to its customers, helping China-Africa trade buck a downward trend.