On October 8, Yingkou Port in Northeast China's Liaoning Province saw its throughput exceed 100 million tons, to become the nation's 10th sea port with such a large annual handling capacity.

Yingkou is an important port in Liaoning's "Five Point and One Line" project, a belt comprising five industrial clusters.

It is also the port situated closest to Liaoning's central city group and Northeast China's traditional industrial bases.

"It has been a longstanding dream for Yingkou Port to be ranked among the top 10 large port groups in the nation," said Gao Baoyu, president of the Yingkou Port Group.

The development of Yingkou Port has experienced a series of ups and downs over time, due to several historical reasons.

The reform and opening-up in the late 1970s injected new vigor into the port.

After advancing into the 21st century, the deepening of the reform and opening-up process, along with the stable political environment and harmonious social and economic development, brewed new opportunities for Yingkou's rapid growth, Gao said.

In addition, under the able guidance of the provincial and city governments, the support of the Ministry of Communications and other ministries, Yingkou Port has made great strides on the fast track of sustainable development and transformed itself from a small and unknown port into a large national-level one.

The port's main competence was sharpened after the 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05) period.

So far, it has two industrial port areas of Boyuquan and Yingkou, while the Xianrendao Area has been approved and is now under construction, he said.

The port has 48 berths, six decks for container, auto, coal, grain, mine, finished oil products and liquefied chemicals, and some multi-function decks and berths.

It has a variety of small, medium and large-sized berths, the handling capacity of which range from 3,000 to 200,000 tons.

Yingkou Port also has special decks to load large industrial machineries to meet the demand of traditional industrial production bases in Liaoning Province.

The port has already established coastal transportation links with some 140 ports in about 50 countries and regions around the world, he said.

Its container shipping routes cover the nation's important coastal ports, and it has opened many shipping routes with Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asian countries and regions.

In its 2 million-sq m logistics park, it has opened a 300,000-sq m bonded warehouse, as well as some constant-temperature and steel products warehouses.

The port also efficiently operates the trading of corn futures.

"Reaching a 100 million-ton throughput marks a historical milestone for Yingkou Port, and it is a significant achievement not only in terms of the port's development but also for the province and the nation as a whole," Gao said.

It is a great achievement for Liaoning's "Five Points and One Line" project, demonstrating that port construction under the project is making headway.

Moreover, it highlights the nation's port and transportation industry and signals an upgrade of the nation's ports' cargo handling capacity.

Coming just before the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, this achievement of Yingkou Port is a great gift to the nation.