Qinhuangdao port in North China's Hebei province has launched a short sea container service to Osaka and Busan, reports Xinhua.

The weekly service deploying two 834-TEU vessels calling at Qinhuangdao on Wednesdays and departs on Thursdays with a port rotation of Tianjin, Qinhuangdao, Longkou, Lianyungang, Osaka, Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya and Busan.

Qinhuangdao port's foreign trade cargo throughput totalled 28 million tonnes in the past five years. In 2010, its container throughput came to 340,000 TEU of which the Japan and Korea cargo accounted for 36 per cent.