On the morning of December 22, 2024, at the site of Shanghai Yangshan Phase 4 Automation Terminal, through the remote operation of the bridge crane, a container wearing a red coat was steadily grabbed from the AGV (automatic unmanned guided vehicle), accurately lifted and transported to the deck of the ocean liner. At this point, the loading and unloading of the 50 millionth TEU in Shanghai Port in 2024 was successfully completed, setting the highest record in the history of container transportation in global ports, and is expected to rank first in the world for the 15th consecutive year. The achievement of this "50 million box class" super volume marks the construction of Shanghai International Shipping Center to a new level and embark on a new journey.
Pujiang gushing heaven and earth are wide, the eastern tide is wide and new. Shanghai Port mind "the country's largest", bearing in mind the entrust, brave to shoulder the mission, the international hub port status is becoming increasingly prominent, container throughput has reached a new high, major engineering projects have been successfully completed and put into use, scientific and technological achievements accelerated transformation and application, the port of new quality productivity accumulation and enabling... Efforts have been made to create one after another "first" and "best", and become the vanguard and leader of the "digital, intelligent and green" port.
Mind the big picture, create a world-class
Looking back at the development of Shanghai Port container, the former high Bridges crisscrossy fields, the ocean deep hidden island, has now become the dazzling coordinates of the world's shipping map. Since the opening of the container transport curtain in 1978, the container throughput of Shanghai Port has accelerated and constantly jumped. In 1978, the "Pingxiang City" ship set sail at the port of Shanghai, and only achieved a container throughput of 7951 TEUs. 1994 Container throughput exceeded 1 million TEUs; In 1995, it ranked among the top 20 container ports in the world for the first time. In 2003, the container throughput exceeded 10 million TEUs at one stroke, achieving a historic leap. Subsequently, in 2006, 2011 and 2017, the container throughput exceeded 20 million, 30 million and 40 million in succession. Now, the port of Shanghai has once again struggled to jump to a new peak of 50 million TEUs, and is expected to rank first in the world for the 15th consecutive year since 2010.
If these 50 million TEUs were stacked on top of each other, the height would be equivalent to more than 14,600 Mount Everest.
In the face of the current complex international economic and trade situation in the world, how does the Port of Shanghai move forward under pressure and continue to grow?
In 2024, SIPG will be the main force in the construction of Shanghai International Shipping Center, strive to enhance the national strategic level of service, implement the strategy of "South Alliance North integration West extension", deepen cooperation with global liner companies, optimize route layout, improve transit efficiency, and increase the international transit business by more than 20% year-on-year, which is expected to exceed 7 million TEUs in the whole year. At the same time, with the strong support of customs, maritime, border inspection and other port units, the pilot promotion of new businesses such as coastal hauling, international pooling and Shanghai Port "9610" cross-border e-commerce has also become a new engine for container increment.
With one hand the ship, with the other the port. Sipg continues to deepen regional cooperation and has conducted in-depth cooperation with ports of 22 provinces and cities along the Yangtze River, including 16 ports in the Yangtze River Delta, strengthening the synergistic effect of port logistics resources between the home port and the hinterland.
At the same time, the continuous improvement of the port collection and distribution system provides strong momentum for the growth of Shanghai Port container throughput. "This year, the water transfer ratio of Shanghai Port is expected to reach 60%, a record high. The sea-rail combined transport service launched in 2019 has been normalized. At present, more than 10 sea-rail intermodal transport daily stable operation, this year's volume is expected to exceed 900,000 TEUs, an increase of about 40%, radiation hinterland capacity has been effectively improved." Shanghai Port Group production business department deputy general manager Yang Yanbin told reporters.
"Move the port of Shanghai's 'outlet' to the 'doorstep' of the ICT service port", which is another new exploration of the Port of Shanghai in creating a comprehensive transport service pattern. Since 2020, Shanghai Port has launched the innovative ICT (Inland Container Terminal), namely: The Inland Container Terminal (Inland Container Terminal) project realizes the advance of the service capacity of Shanghai Port to the hinterland cargo gathering point, and is customized according to customer needs of "water is water, iron is iron, and public is public", making logistics and transportation more smooth, efficient, economical and convenient. At present, the ICT points of Shanghai Port are becoming more and more dense, the business has expanded to some inland ports, and more than 10 inland barge operators have been integrated to form high-density and stable inland shipping services, further enhancing the attractiveness of the hinterland of Shanghai Port.
The continuous growth of container capacity highlights the status of Shanghai Port as a world-class shipping hub. At present, Shanghai International Shipping Center has been ranked among the top three in the global comprehensive strength of shipping center cities for five consecutive years. At present, the port of Shanghai has nearly 350 international routes, covering more than 700 ports in more than 200 countries and regions around the world, and the port connectivity has ranked first in the world for 13 consecutive years. Not only that, Shanghai Yangshan Port Area has ranked first in the Global Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) for two consecutive years.
To the "new" line, perched on the top of innovation
In the long coastline of the port of Shanghai, the port scientific and technological achievements are scattered, the automatic terminals such as Yangsi and Luoji operate intelligentially 24 hours a day, the intelligent heavy truck rides on the East China Sea Bridge, and F5G technology helps the "air pick-up box" 100 kilometers away become a reality... Backed by the Yangtze River and facing the Pacific Ocean, the port of Shanghai is not only pursuing the accumulation of "quantity" and the superposition of "number", but also the breakthrough of "quality" and the jump of hub energy level.
Back in 2017, the Port of Shanghai not only broke through the historical milestone of 40 million TEUs of container throughput, but also ushered in the proud advent of Yangshan Phase 4 automated terminal. The birth of the fourth phase of Yangshan marks the milestone of leapfrog upgrading and major changes in the operation mode and technology application of China's port industry. In the past 7 years, the production efficiency of Yangshan Phase 4 has repeatedly set records, and the cumulative container throughput has exceeded 35 million TEUs. Compared with traditional terminals, the overall efficiency has increased by 30% while the personnel is reduced by 70%, and the per capita labor productivity is 213% of that of traditional terminals, becoming the benchmark of China's green wisdom "double five-star" automated container terminals. The project won the "Shanghai Science and Technology Award Science and Technology Progress Grand Prize".
There are many Bridges and boats. Huang Hua, the chief bridge crane operator of Shanghai Yangshan Phase 4, looked at the busy scene in front of him and said: "The first box of Yangshan Phase 4 opening port was lifted by me, it is like my own child, watching it born, grow up, and now full of wings. This year, Yangshan IV is expected to break the historic mark of 7 million TEUs."
With the smallest space, the least personnel, play a greater efficiency, the key word behind is "intelligent". Referring to "intelligent", the first reaction of the industry is the intelligent control system (ITOS) of Yangshan Phase 4, which made a splash in the industry once it came out in 2017, which is also the first time for China to break the monopoly of foreign port software technology and promote the successful embedding of "China core" in China's automated terminals. Over the years, this "China core" has been continuously upgraded and iterated, surpassing itself, helping Yangshan Phase 4 to rank first in the world in terms of loading and unloading logistics capacity and efficiency. At present, the results of the project "Research and Application of Key Technologies of Yangshan IV super Large automated Container Terminal" have been replicated in 14 terminals at home and abroad.
The Peruvian port of Chankai is one of them. Huang Cong, General secretary and general manager of Nezha Science and Technology Party of SIHK Group, said: "We have accumulated a lot of experience in Yangshan Phase 4 project and applied it to Qiankai Port. We believe that through optimization and upgrading of our intelligent brain ITOS, the energy level of Qiankai Port Phase 1 project will exceed the original long-term planning goal of 1.5 million TEU."
Practice has proved that SIPG has always adhered to scientific and technological innovation as the first driving force to lead the development of enterprises, and taken the road of independent research and development, which has not only gone right, but also succeeded. "The success of Yangshan Phase 4 is not the end of Shanghai Port's exploration on the road to wisdom. On the contrary, it is just the beginning." Mr. Wong said.
In August 2024, the first phase of Luojing Container Port Area of Shanghai Port officially opened, which is another new exploration of Shanghai Port to the field of automated terminals after Yangshan Phase 4. "There is no end to innovation," Huang told reporters. "What we have installed this time is a 'NEO-TOS' with better performance based on a domestic database, domestic operating system and server, and it can be directly copied to the traditional dock." It is reported that the third automated terminal in the port of Shanghai is also under preparation. In the future, seven 70,000-ton container berths and 15 20,000-ton container berths will be built in the Xiaoyangshan North operation area, with a total design capacity of 11.6 million TEUs, and an initial capacity of 1.5 million TEUs is expected to be formed in 2026.
"ITOS in the south, NEO-TOS in the north" has become a vivid portrayal of SIPG in exploring the road to build a smart port.
While gathering the power of innovation, SIPG actively promotes the digital transformation of the port, improves the overall operational efficiency, and reduces the port logistics cost. The International Container Transport Service Platform (MaaS) jointly built by the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Transport and the Shanghai Port Group was officially unveiled in September this year, successfully building a sea-rail logistics information network across 9 provinces and 40 cities, effectively solving the problem of logging in to different systems or platforms in the past, improving the efficiency of information acquisition, and realizing the new service of "one-door query". Not only that, Shanghai Port production intelligent command center, online acceptance, card reservation, electronic equipment delivery order (EIR), electronic bill of lading (EDO), river and sea transport, inland container terminal (ICT) and other business platforms have also become a powerful carrier to promote paperless, zero contact, transparent visualization and convenient services.
Accumulation thick into potential, spectrum green new chapter
"Green water and green mountains are gold and silver mountains." Since 2023, the Port of Shanghai has jointly built a "Green Shipping Corridor" with the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Hamburg, providing a model for the construction of green shipping corridors in the world.
The operation of Luojing Container Port area of Shanghai Port is a vivid manifestation. This port area used to be the main operation area of Shanghai Port coal and ore transportation services, belonging to the high pollution and low added value of the port, and later in response to the Yangtze River protection was suspended, and now it has changed its cage and become a typical representative of the smart and green port of Shanghai. Its most distinctive feature is that in the construction process, the ingenious use of original waste materials to build a new terminal, the utilization rate of old structure resources reached 70%, and 30% of the dismantled building materials were reused, becoming the first systematic old terminal container transformation project in China.
In addition, the Shanghai Port container terminal has been fully equipped with shore power facilities, the utilization rate of shore power has increased significantly, and it is expected that the number of consecutive ships and the amount of electricity saved will increase by 250% and 200% this year. At the same time, Yangshan Port Area has become the first high-star "green port area" in the country, and has gradually carried out low-carbon transformation of large-scale loading and unloading equipment at the dock.
Hard strength forge long board, soft strength make up short board. Against the highest international standards and the highest level, SIPG focuses on "high-level institutional openness". In recent years, SIPG has seized the new track of clean fuel refueling and achieved competitive breakthrough in LNG and green methanol business. At present, the Port of Shanghai has ranked among the top three bonded liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering ports in the world.
Luo Wenbin, executive director and general manager of SIPG Energy Company, introduced that up to now, Shanghai Port has completed 125 times of bonded LNG refueling for international sailing ships, with a refueling volume of 730,000 cubic meters. At the same time, LNG refueling services are showing a normal trend, and it is expected that the annual refueling volume of Shanghai Port will reach 450,000 cubic meters in 2024, an increase of more than 70%. In terms of service scope, it is expected to extend and expand from Yangshan Port area to Waigaoqiao Port area in the near future to achieve full coverage of Shanghai Port.
While LNG has achieved normal development, Shanghai Port's green methanol refueling business has also taken a historic step. In April this year, the Port of Shanghai successfully completed the "ship-to-ship" synchronous filling operation of green methanol fuel for large container ships, which is China's historic "first order".
"In 2025, the Port of Shanghai will realize the normal injection of green methanol. We are speeding up the construction of infrastructure, including the renovation and expansion of storage tank facilities. At present, Shanghai Port has two LNG refueling vessels and one methanol refueling vessel, and in the future, one vessel will be added to each of the two types of refueling vessels. By 2030, we hope to achieve the 'double 100' goal of LNG filling capacity of 1 million cubic meters and green methanol filling capacity of 1 million tons." Luo Wenbin said.
In the next stage, SIPG will continue to strengthen cooperation in the relevant port and shipping industry chain, accelerate the upgrading of high-end shipping services, better allocate global shipping resources, build a clean energy refueling center at the Port of Shanghai, and promote the function agglomeration and energy expansion of Shanghai international shipping center.
People in the port and shipping industry said that as a microcosm and amplification of the magnificent development process of China's ports, the Port of Shanghai is showing the determination and confidence of the construction of first-class and strong ports to the world, and also telling the world about the "new miracle" of "good construction, good management and good development" of Chinese modern ports.