Shanghai today formally opens its US$12 billion deep-water port, a key component of its strategy to challenge Hong Kong as the world's biggest container port and attract trans-shipment business away from Singapore, Kaohsiung and Hong Kong.
Officials from the central and city governments will join with executives of foreign shipping firms to take part in a lavish ceremony to mark the opening of the first five berths, each more than 15 metres deep and with an annual design capacity of 2.2 million teu (20-foot equivalent units). The berths can handle ships loaded with 8,500 containers, more than double the city's current port capacity.
'As ships get bigger and bigger, so a network of new ports will replace the old port system,' said Zheng Aibing, an analyst at the Shanghai Maritime College. 'Over the next 10 to 20 years, five to eight giant ports could handle more than 50 per cent of the world's cargo.'
Mr Zheng said Yangshan would play a strategic role for the manufacturing sector, as a hub between the world market and feeder ports in the Yangtze River Delta.
When completed in 2012, Yangshan is planned to handle about 17 million teu a year, half of the capacity of the Yangtze River Delta.
Shanghai is on track to become the world's largest freight port this year, overtaking Singapore. In the first 10 months, it handled 363 million tonnes of cargo and expects to reach 443 million for the full year, ahead of Singapore's 420 million.