Shanghai Port on track for record year

With continued technology upgrading and industrial transformation, Shanghai Port is expected to beat its annual throughput record this year, reflecting China's strong economic resilience and potential amid multiple market complexities and uncertainties, said experts and industry mavens.

Their comments follow the release of Shanghai International Port (Group) Co Ltd's latest data on Tuesday, which show that Shanghai Port, which is managed by the company, handled 50.56 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers during the first 11 months of the year, up 6.7 percent on a yearly basis.

While reaching the target of 50 million TEUs one month earlier than in 2024, Shanghai Port is expected to see its whole-year container throughput hit a new high this year, helping it to retain the position as the world's largest of its kind for the 16th consecutive year, according to SIPG.

Shanghai Yangshan Deep Water Port in the southeastern part of the city is the biggest contributor to the new record. It handled 26.25 million TEUs of containers during the first 11 months, up 9.7 percent on a yearly basis. The whole-year number will stand above 29 million, according to SIPG.

Emerging technology-based industrial upgrading and automation have largely facilitated the higher efficiency and capacity at Yangshan Deep Water Port, according to SIPG.

The transformation of the Yangshan Port's first and second phases started in 2022. Part of the intelligent yard crane control was put into use this year, enabling intelligent scheduling of attendance, dispatch and work instructions for wheel cranes. A total of 20 container yards and 17 remote-controlled wheel cranes will complete their renovation in the first half of 2026, according to executives from Shanghai Shengdong International Container Terminal Co Ltd, the operator of the two phases.

Artificial intelligence models have been used in the third phase of Yangshan Port, through which the loading of containers onto ships is calculated more efficiently, said Mao Yuhua, vice-general manager of the operation department of the port's third phase.

The AI-based smart loading system can calculate the loading of 11,466 standard containers per hour, while the average manual calculation capacity is about 800 containers per hour. The system has also reduced the container re-handling rate by 20.6 percent, said Mao.

The fourth phase of Yangshan Port, which became operational in 2017, has been the world's largest single container port with the highest level of automation. The domestically produced smart operation system used has been upgraded more than 30 times over the past few years, elevating the labor productivity per capita to 213 percent of that at traditional yards, said Huang Hua, chief remote operator at the port's fourth phase.

"With its robust capacity, Yangshan Port has helped to ensure the stability and smooth operation of global industrial and supply chains. This has reflected China's continued contribution to propel world economic growth," said Zhou Yong, vice-general manager of SIPG's production business department.

According to the Ministry of Transport, China's port cargo throughput and container throughput have respectively risen by 4.3 percent and 6.4 percent year-on-year during the first 10 months of the year, demonstrating the strong vitality of China's ports.

Zhen Hong, director of the academic committee of the Shanghai International Shipping Institute, said that the core competitiveness of ports against the current international landscape is not only about size, but more importantly, about their capabilities in confronting uncertainties. While the global industrial supply chains have been restructuring, the stable operation of Chinese ports has served as an important pillar of smooth international trade.

Container cargo has been rising steadily amid port cargo in China, showing the optimization of the country's trade structure, he added.