March 12 - According to China Daily, Cosco Star, a passenger and cargo ship that links Xiamen in Fujian province with coastal cities in Taiwan, made its inaugural trip carrying engineering vehicles to Taiwan last week.

The newspaper reports that Andrew Hu, a deputy general manager at COSCO Xiamen International Freight, which owns the ship, claims this as a major breakthrough for vehicle transportation across the Taiwan Straits, adding that the ship is the first of its kind to transport vehicles as ro-ro cargo instead of container cargo between the mainland and Taiwan.

The ship was due to sail from Xiamen harbour with a shovel loader and a Caterpillar excavator, said the newspaper.

www.cosco.com