Qingdao Port: Northeast Asia's shipping hub
QINGDAO: Every day, about 19 ships connect Qingdao with more than 450 ports in 130 countries and regions across the world.
The frantic arrival and departure of shipload after shipload has helped the 115-year-old port in East China's Shandong Province develop rapidly.
"In the first half of the year, Qingdao Port handled 130 million tons of cargos and 4.5 million TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units)," chairman and president of Qingdao Port Group Chang Dechuan said.
As China's third largest port in terms of container throughput, Qingdao Port also operates Asia's biggest crude oil terminal and the world's top iron ore terminal.
The city aims to become the largest shipping hub in Northeast Asia.
Qingdao Port became one of the top 10 world commercial ports in 2006, after its handling capacity shot up to 224 million tons, 20 percent more than the previous year.
Container throughput exceeded 7.7 million TEUs, up 22.1 percent.
At present, the port has three harbors with 78 berths, including 46 10,000-plus ton berths.
It can accommodate 300,000-plus ton oil vessels as well container ships capable of carrying 10,000 TEUs.
The port has met many benchmarks like the "Zhenchao Efficiency", which means successfully loading and unloading any size container ship in 10 hours.
Aware that inter-port cooperation would be a major economic boost, Qingdao set up two container companies separately with Weihai Port and Rizhao Port, both of Shandong Province.
Last year, Qingdao Port accounted for 47 per cent of Shandong's 470 million tons of throughput.
The city's container throughput accounted for 81 percent of the total 9.5 million TEUs.
In 2006, Qingdao Port ranked 11 in the world in container throughput.
It is now a base port on the main routes of international container ship transportation.
Qingdao is now connected to 121 container-shipping lines including scheduled lines opened by the world's top 20 container companies.
To date, seven Fortune 500 companies have established subsidiaries in Qingdao Port, including Mitsubishi from Japan and ABB from Sweden.
Sixty percent of Shandong's exportation is conducted in Qingdao Port.
Thanks to the boom in Qingdao Port, the neighboring Qingdao Economic and Technological Development Zone is enjoying breakneck development with more than 90 Fortune 500 subsidiaries.
(China Daily 08/21/2007 page24)
