On Nov 6, a shipment of semi-finished liquid crystal displays (LCD) worth $340,000 arrived in Pingtan by the Straits, the largest high-speed, direct passenger ship linking Pingtan and Taiwan. The goods were loaded from Southern Taiwan Science Park in Taiwan and will be shipped to Ningbo, a manufacturing hub and the second largest city in Zhejiang province.

"This is the first time the Straits has shipped goods in transit from Taiwan. Their import customs formalities will be handled in Ningbo," said Lin Pengfei, director of Pingtan's port office.

Transit goods refers to merchandise that have been shipped by the seller, but have not yet been received by the purchaser. They can be classified as import transit goods, export transit goods or domestic transit goods.

According to Cai Zongyue, deputy manager of the freight department of Fujian Haixia High-Speed Passenger RORO Shipping Company, the goods are high-tech control panels and are carried via shipping containers. As import transit goods, they can arrive in Ningbo directly without discharging in Pingtan.

Customs formalities for import transit goods are allowed to be dealt with at the purchaser's side after applying to be transmitted to domestic customs.

Cai also noted that cross-Straits freight activity is still in trial operation, but Pingtan customs and national inspection departments will apply special methods to special cases. Arriving at their destination, goods will be inspected and customs cleared immediately.

Edited by Chen Zhilin and Michael Thai