?A worker stands beside a container of Egyptian pavilion exhibits for the China International Import Expo, at Port Said in northeast Egypt Sept. 22, 2018. China's COSCO Company on Saturday started shipping the Egyptian pavilion exhibits for the China International Import Expo that will be held in Shanghai, east China, on Nov. 5-10. (Xinhua/Meng Tao)?
PORT SAID, Egypt, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- China's COSCO Company started Saturday shipping the Egyptian pavilion for the China International Import Expo that will be held in Shanghai from Nov. 5 to 10.
"The first Egyptian container that will leave the Port Said port at 22:00 pm (2000 GMT) contains handicrafts, cotton textiles, furniture, medical equipment, industrial products, souvenirs, and raw materials," said Mohsen al-Mazahy, chairman of Port Said for Containers & Cargos Company.
The 25-day trip will pass through Singapore port before reaching China directly without stops, al-Mazahy told Xinhua.
"COSCO Shipping (Egypt) is an international transportation service provider recommended by China International Import Expo to transport the exhibits from Egypt to China," Xie Manding, general manager of COSCO said.
"We hope to help Egypt increase shipping exports and expand the scale of trade between China and Egypt," Xie told Xinhua.
COSCO will continue transporting all the exhibits in Egypt in the next few days, he said.
Al-Mazahy said COSCO is scheduled to transfer 13 containers weighing 120 tons from Egypt to the Shanghai Expo, and seven of them will leave on Saturday, while the other six will depart on Sunday.
He stressed that the shipping of Egyptian products to the Chinese fair by COSCO will increase the trade volume between Chinese ports and Port Said.
"COSCO Shipping (Egypt) now is the largest and the only Chinese shipping company in Egypt after the integration of COSCO and China Shipping lines in September 2016," said al-Mazahy, adding that the integration has boosted the value of the new COSCO line in the Egyptian market.
It the Port Said western port in 2017, the number of containers coming from China ranked the first, and the number of containers departing ranked the second, he said.
Meanwhile, China's exports and imports through all Egyptian ports ranked the second in the same year.
From June 2017 to July 2018, Port Said gained 800 million Egyptian pounds (44.72 million U.S. dollars) in revenues from bilateral imports and exports, said al-Mazahy, adding marble, food, phosphate and furniture were the most important exports for China.
