Cargo ships from Chinese mainland give Taiwan's biggest port a boost

More cargo ships from the Chinese mainland heading to Europe have been transiting via Kaohsiung port in Taiwan in recent years, workers at the port said on Monday.

"More and more freighters are running from the Chinese mainland to Europe," Jack Wu, a 50-year-old pilot at the port, said while helping to navigate the MV Cosco Netherlands container ship on Monday.

"One hundred freighters reach our port every day, nearly 30 percent of which travel along that route," he said, adding that numbers increased after the Belt and Road Initiative was launched at the end of 2013.

Kaohsiung port, the largest in Taiwan, is in the southwest of the island.