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| Present Development |
| 2005-03-25 14:53:44 |
| Cargo throughput and ratified through capacity of Ningbo Port both exceeded 100 million tons by the end of the "Ninth Five-year Plan" . By the year of 2005, the annual cargo throughput and container throughput of the whole Ningbo Port will reach 150 million tons and over 2.5 million standard boxes, respectively.  In the past 22 years since China's opening up, especially during the course of the "Ninth Five-year Plan", Ningbo Port has witnessed a brilliant period in the history of harbour development. By November 30th, 2000, the annual through capacity of the whole port reached 101,780,000 tons and cargo throughput amounted to 107,000,000 tons, 100 and 51 times that of 1978 respectively. In 20 years, a once unknown local harbour in East China has miraculously grown into one of the few large ports in the world that have an annual throughput of more than a hundred million tons.Ningbo Port, with a long history of around 1,200 years, is one of the three famous ancient ports in China. Nevertheless, the annual cargo throughput of the whole port was merely 40,000 tons by 1949, and the annual through capacity was only 970,000 tons while the cargo throughput barely exceeded 2 million tons by 1978. The breeze of reform and opening up awakened the ancient port, and Ningbo Port began to grow like a giant dragon of East China. Particularly, in the course of the "Ninth Five-year Plan", it stepped into the stage of rapid development. In 2000, the cargo throughput of the whole port will exceed 115 million tons, increased by 46,480,000 tons compared to year 1995 (at the end of the "Eighth Five-year Plan" course). During the "Ninth Five-year Plan" course, the cargo throughput totalled 457,260,000 tons, increased by 199,450,000 tons, or 78%, compared to the "Eighth Five-year Plan" period. In the course of the "Ninth Five-year Plan", Ningbo Port constantly adhered to the principle that "Development is the very truth" and always focused on port operation and construction while taking full advantage of its natural advantages in terms of deepness of water, vastness of land area, excellence of location, and ice and silt freeness. It has, under the leadership of the Ministry of Communications, Zhejiang Government and Ningbo Government, put RMB 2,198,000,000 in berth construction and technological renovation in five years, resulting in marked increase in both berth numbers and port throughput and rapid growth of port size and berthing capacity. By the end of 1995, Beilun 200,000-tonnage import iron ore transhipment terminal (also capable of berthing 300,000-tonnage bulk cargo freighters) was built and put in use, hence the rapid increase in the bulk cargo berth capacity of the port from 100,000 ~ 150,000 tons to 300,000 tons. As a result, the port has become one of the few large ports in the world that are capable of berthing 300,000-tonnage bulk cargo freighters. The technological renovation on the 900m-long container terminal in Beilun Harbour Area, including the addition of six large bridge cranes for containers and field gantry cranes, and expansion of storage yard, has raised the annual container throughput capacity from 200,000 to 1,000,000 TEU. The 1,238m-long large international container terminal in Beilun Harbour Area, approved by China State Councils for construction in 1999, has a natural water depth of 15m on the front line and will be equipped with a container loading/unloading bridge with an arm reach of 60.5m. Once built, it will fill up the gap that there is no super-size sixth generation or above container terminal in China. After the "Ninth Five-year Plan", Ningbo Port currently has 184 berths in total, and the ratified throughput capacity of service berths has increased by 76.1%, from 57,000,000 tons by the end of the "Eighth Five-year Plan" period to the present 101,780,000 tons. With the rapid expansion in size and capacity, Ningbo Port, by making full of its deep-water advantages, has also actively fostered freight market, tried hard to improve port environment, enhanced the level of services, and rapidly increased cargo throughput. In the course of the "Ninth Five-year Plan", Ningbo Port took initiative to grasp the opportunities when facing the strong trend in development of container transportation market. Under the close cooperation of associated port organizations, it actively sought for cargo sources and placed emphasis on international container transportation, thus putting container transportation on the track of rapid development. In the course of the "Eighth Five-year Plan", there was no oceanic artery for container delivery in Ningbo Port, and in 1995, the whole year's container throughput was merely 160,000 TEU. Since the opening of the first international container navigation line in June 1996, there have been 10 container trunk lines, connecting Europe, the Mediterranean, American East Coast, American West Coast, the Middle East, and so on, and now there are altogether 40 regular ships operating on the trunk lines each month. Currently, there are already 48 container shipping lines including the trunk lines, and over 220 runs of regular ships each month. Its container shipping operation has covered 533 ports in 88 countries and regions. In 2000, and the container throughput may reach 900,000 TEU, 5.6 times that of 1995.  The deep-water navigation channel and large deep-water berths have attracted a great deal of cargo forwarders and shippers. Ningbo Port has now become not only one of the busiest ports in China, but also the major distribution port for super-large ships of over 100,000 tons. In 1995, Ningbo Port received 4,387 ship times home and abroad, including 631 times of over-100,000-tonnage ship. In 2000, these two figures will rise to 5,626 and 757, an increase of 28.2% and 20% respectively. The boom of the port has led to the sharp increase of cargo throughput. Compared to the "Eighth Five-year Plan" period, throughput of import iron ore increased by 79%, coal by 33%, and liquid chemicals by 130%, and transhipment of crude oil and product oil by 4 times.At the end of the "Ninth Five-year Plan", Ningbo Port achieved an annual cargo throughput of over 100 million tons. In the course of the "Tenth Five-year Plan", the "Five Bases" will be further reinforced; production structure adjusted and quality of development improved so as to accelerate the port into a new developmental stage when quality shall be emphasized. Ningbo Port is both an excellent deep-water port well known home and abroad and one of the few ports across the globe that can receive 300,000-tonnage super-size ships. In the course of the "Ninth Five-year Plan", Ningbo Port, to make full use of its deep-water advantages, has preliminarily established five cargo transhipment and storage bases for iron ore, crude oil and product oil, oceanic container, liquid chemical product, and coal. In the course of the "Tenth Five-year Plan", the port will bring its unique advantage into full play, and further increase capital investment to maintain a constant growth of cargo throughput and the reserves for later development by building new large deep-water berths and consolidating the functions of the "Five Bases". It's planned that, in the course of the "Tenth Five-year Plan", some RMB 440 million will be invested to build China's best deep-water crude oil transhipment terminal on Daxie Island, including a 250,000-tonnage berth, a 50,000-tonnage berth and a service boat berth. A storage tank with a volume of 2,000,000 or so cubic meters will also be constructed, and the yearly throughput capacity is designed to be 20 million tons. According to the "Tenth Five-year Plan" for Ningbo Port, the production structure of the port will be further adjusted in the five years to come to give prominence to the key areas of development, ensuring the port progresses in both quantity and quality. To achieve this, Ningbo Port intends to invest RMB 2.5 billion in the next three years to build four sixth-generation or above large container jetties in Beilun Harbour Area (the third project phase), The length of the jetties will be 1,238 meters and the annual container throughput capacity will increase by over 1 million standard boxes. Besides, to meet the demands for development of oceanic container transportation after  China's entry into WTO, Ningbo Port Authority is now planning the construction of a 1,500m-long oversize international container jetty in Beilun Harbour Area (the fourth project phase). The early works of this jetty will be started in 2001, and it is scheduled that one or two berths are put in use by 2005. By then, the total container throughput capacity of the whole Ningbo Port will amount to more than 3 million TEU, enabling it to accommodate the world's largest container ship or even larger container ship that may appear in future, which makes it one of the best container ports across the globe in terms of water depth conditions. |
