Ambition to be dynamic ship and rail hub

Today, Ningbo has developed into a modern international port. It is one of the main transportation hubs in the country.

It boasts 328 berths, including 99 deepwater berths, which is the most of any of the Chinese mainland ports, and its operations cover containers, ores, crude oil, liquefied gas as well as bulk commodities.

Ningbo Port has links with more than 600 ports in more than 100 countries and regions.

Last year, the port’s throughput reached 496 million tons, which ranked among the top four in the world.

In the first three quarters of this year, Ningbo port handled 396 million tons of cargo, an increase of 6.7 percent on the previous year. In terms of containers, the port handled 14.25 million during the same period, up by 11.7 percent year-on-year. Both figures ranked the fifth in the world.

Xu Huajiang, chairman of Ningbo Port Co, said that the company aims to make it an international hub port.

“We have the largest number of deepwater berths in the Chinese mainland and have the perfect geographic location. Both are advantages for making Ningbo an international hub,” he said.

Located in the eastern part of East China’s Zhejiang province, Ningbo is in the middle of China’s eastern coastline.

It is one of the most important transfer hubs linking ASEAN countries with Japan, South Korea and North America.

Xu said that the port has been upgraded in order to achieve its goal of becoming an international hub port.

“Now we can unload one standard container within 15 minutes, which is a world record,” he said.

Apart from upgrading, the port is also seeking to expand its market by cooperating with cities in the central and western parts of China to develop maritime-railway transportation links.

“We are looking at a Ningbo-Europe maritime-railway transportation line that links Ningbo with European countries,” he said.

Xu said that in the future, Ningbo port will not only serve as an upload-unload port, but as a complex featuring finance, logistics and foreign trade.

“Ningbo was one of the starting ports of maritime Silk Road in ancient times, and we are going to be an important port for the modern maritime Silk Road,” he said.