Shanghai eyes glory as shipping hub

The municipal government of Shanghai has set a goal for the city to emerge as a world-class international shipping center during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25).

Officials said on Thursday that by 2025, Shanghai will be also capable of multiple shipping-related accomplishments each year: handling more than 47 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of containers at its ports each year; receiving 130 million passenger trips; and clearing 4.1 million metric tons of cargo at its airports.

In the past five years, Shanghai has become an international shipping center and acquired the preliminary capability of allocating global shipping resources, said the 14th five-year guideline on Shanghai's development into an international shipping center.

Shanghai was rated third among international shipping centers behind only Singapore and London by the 2020 Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Center Development Index.

Shanghai's international influence is steadily growing, said Yu Fulin, director of Shanghai Municipal Transport Commission.

"In accordance with the central government's new strategy, and following the new requirements for the development as a shipping center, Shanghai would try its best to build a hub and strategic nexus under the new dual-circulation development pattern. Shanghai will upgrade itself into a world-class international shipping center with convenience, high efficiency, full functions, eco-friendliness and strong safeguards by 2025," said Yu.

The city's municipal government has identified seven main tasks for the coming five years: optimization of shipping industry clusters' respective strengths and characteristics; integration and high-quality development of ports across the Yangtze River Delta region; enhancement of global aviation resource allocation ability; creation of a high-class cruise economic center; promotion of sustainable development as a shipping center with the aid of technology; improvement of shipping-related services; and strengthening of capabilities related to the shipping industry.

Shanghai Port has been the world's busiest container port in terms of container throughput for 11 consecutive years. The fourth phase of Shanghai Yangshan Deep Water Port is currently the world's biggest automated container terminal with an annual capacity of 5 million TEUs by the end of 2020, according to Zhang Xin, vice-president of Shanghai International Port Group.

"During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, we will look to maintain the fourth phase of the Yangshan Port project's leading position in its scale, efficiency and technology. The goal is to accomplish handling of 30 million TEUs of containers at the automated terminal in the coming five years, and expand its annual capacity to 7 million TEUs," said Zhang.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the Shanghai Airport Authority will focus on increasing its ground facilities as well as enhancing the capabilities to support large passenger volumes.

"We are going to build world-class facilities like an aviation hub, including the fourth phase expansion project of Shanghai Pudong International Airport, the construction of an intelligent new cargo station, and other comprehensive facilities," said Zhou Junlong, vice-president of the Shanghai Airport Authority.

An important part of the fourth phase expansion of Shanghai Pudong International Airport is the construction of a 1.19 million-square-meter Terminal 3, which is designed to handle 50 million passenger trips per year.

As of 2019, there were more than 100 aviation firms operating at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport and Shanghai Pudong International Airport. They connect 314 destinations in 50 nations.

The two airports handled 120 million passengers trips and 4.058 million tons of cargo each year, ranking fourth and third respectively among global cities.