On 9 October 2026, Suzhou Daily and the Suzhou municipal government reported that Suzhou Port’s Taicang area had opened a direct container fast service to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The vessel DSM ROSE (帝斯曼玫瑰), carrying nearly 1,000 TEU of export cargo, was to sail from the Zhenghexing container terminal at Taicang for Jeddah—marking Hangzhong International Group’s (航众国际集团) new direct Taicang–Middle East container loop.
Jeddah is Saudi Arabia’s largest deep-water hub on the Red Sea coast and a core Middle East shipping and commerce gateway. Local reports say it radiates across Saudi Arabia and about 30 Middle East countries, and is framed as a link between China’s Belt and Road cooperation and Saudi Vision 2030.
Hangzhong focuses on Middle East ocean shipping and overseas logistics, with a Saudi local logistics subsidiary offering sea freight, destination warehousing and inland delivery as an end-to-end package—aimed especially at Chinese engineering equipment, steel structures, photovoltaics and electromechanical exports. Chairman Xu Dapeng said the new line can save about two to three weeks versus previous routings by skipping hub transshipment, with stronger schedule certainty and lower all-in logistics cost; the group plans to densify sailings and tune capacity as demand grows.
Suzhou Port is expanding its foreign-trade direct network beyond Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia and the Russian Far East into the Middle East, Mediterranean, Eastern Europe, North Africa and South America. For Yangtze Delta exporters of machinery, steel structures, industrial electrics, PV, white goods and light industry, Taicang now offers a doorstep direct option into Jeddah, while return capacity can support Saudi energy-chemical and bulk imports into the delta.