China's Ningbo-Zhoushan port gears up for busy winter

HANGZHOU -- As the year ends, ships of over 10,000 tonnes are lined up at the Meishan port area of Ningbo-Zhoushan port in east China's Zhejiang Province, with bridge cranes and container trucks working closely together.

Being one of the world's busiest ports in terms of cargo throughput and container throughput, the Ningbo-Zhoushan port has overcome multiple unfavorable factors and ensured a smooth flow of the logistics supply chain this year.

From January to November, the port saw its cargo throughput up 3.41 percent year on year to reach 1.16 billion tonnes and its container throughput up 7.84 percent year on year to hit over 31.26 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).

"The volume of work in the Ningbo-Zhoushan port remains stable and increasing, which reflects the resilience and vitality of China's economy," said Gong Liming, general manager of Ningbo Zhoushan Port Company Limited.

As a transportation and logistics hub, the Ningbo-Zhoushan port has formulated supporting logistics plans for key customers while implementing 18 measures to guarantee smooth transportation and seven measures to help enterprises in need tide over difficulties, Gong said.

"The port has stuck to the principle of 'one enterprise, one policy' to meet the needs of companies to the greatest extent," Gong added.

To improve the handling capacity of the Ningbo-Zhoushan port, local authorities have stepped up the infrastructure construction in Chuanshan, Meishan, and other deep-water port areas and unleashed the potential of new berths in port areas, including Meishan and Jintang.

"Since the beginning of this year, the port has handled more than 270 container ships with capacities over 20,000 TEUs," said Leng Zhiqiang, director of the container center of the business department of Ningbo Zhoushan Port Company Limited.

"We are where the demand is," said Xu Bin, director of the sea-rail center of the business department of Ningbo Zhoushan Port Company Limited.

By improving the two-way layout of "deeper domestic markets and wider international markets," the Ningbo-Zhoushan port is committed to creating efficient and smooth logistics systems to facilitate the safety and stability of economic circulation, Xu said.

"By the end of November, the combined sea-rail transport volume of Ningbo-Zhoushan port reached nearly 1.36 million TEUs this year, an increase of more than 22 percent year-on-year, covering 63 prefecture-level cities in 16 provinces," Xu said.

Also, the port has become a new passage for the exports of new energy vehicles (NEVs) via a sea-rail intermodal container transport service. Last month, the port saw the arrival of the final 93 cars in the shipment of 402 domestically produced NEVs on a container freight train from neighboring Jiangsu Province. These vehicles were then transferred to a container ship bound for Europe.

"The port will continue to strengthen the layout of sea-rail combined transport, provide customers with better logistics solutions, and build a more stable, safe, and efficient logistics system," Xu added.