GDYNIA, Poland, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- Over 20 years in shipping, Li Zhiping has witnessed the change of both the cargoes and trade patterns around him.
When he started out as a seafarer, most of the ships he worked on sailed from Europe to China or South America. China-bound vessels often carried machinery and technical equipment from Europe.
About a decade ago, Li began to notice the change of direction of cargo flows -- more voyages were starting in China.
Today, as a shipping division director, he sees Chinese-made wind power equipment, transformers and energy storage units on cargo lists bound for Europe, the United States, Australia and the Middle East.
The shift Li has observed over the course of his career reflects a broader change in China's trade with the world.
The company he works for, Chipolbrok, a Chinese-Polish Joint Stock Shipping Company, offers a longer view of that change. Founded by China and Poland in 1951, it was the first Sino-foreign joint venture established in the People's Republic of China. In its early years, ships on the route carried machinery, steel and other equipment urgently needed for China's industrial development.
More than seven decades later, both the scale and composition of China's trade look very different.
According to customs statistics, China's goods trade reached a record 45.47 trillion yuan (about 6.8 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2025, up 3.8 percent year-on-year. Exports of electric vehicles, lithium batteries and photovoltaic products -- often referred to as the "new trio" -- rose 27.1 percent. Wind turbine exports jumped 48.7 percent.
For Li, those figures have a tangible counterpart: the equipment he now sees being loaded onto ships and sent to market thousands of kilometers from China.
But the transformation of trade has come as the environment surrounding it has grown more difficult.
The cargoes are changing. So is the environment in which they move.
Karolina Czarnowska, a sales executive at Chipolbrok for four years, said geopolitical tensions have made international shipping increasingly unpredictable, while fuel prices can swing sharply.
Much of her job involves visiting customers, listening to their needs and working with colleagues to find solutions. She said customers often point to that responsiveness as one of the company's strengths.
In a volatile market, Czarnowska said, reliable end-to-end logistics services give customers greater confidence and have helped strengthen their trust in Chinese shipping companies.
That experience has also shaped her view of Chinese businesses. "I believe they can survive and develop even in a difficult international environment," she said.
The same uncertainty has also made international cooperation increasingly important in shipping. Chipolbrok began by linking China and Poland by sea. Over the decades, its services expanded far beyond bilateral trade, reaching markets across the world.
In a message marking the company's 75th anniversary, Arkadiusz Marchewka, Deputy Minister of Polish Infrastructure Ministry, drew a parallel between shipping and economic cooperation.
"At sea, success is never the work of one person alone," he said, adding that lasting partnerships likewise require common goals, professionalism and mutual respect.
Czarnowska sees that cooperation in much more everyday terms.
Chinese and Polish colleagues may have different ways of working and different ideas, she said, but those differences also give both sides opportunities to learn from one another.
"You can always learn from the other side," she said. "Chinese colleagues have different ideas, and then together we can do something. It's very valuable."
(Source: Xinhua)