City works to ensure global supply chain

An undated file photo of Shekou Port in Shenzhen. Li Yu 

Shenzhen, home to Yantian Port — the world’s fourth-busiest container port — is taking all appropriate steps to speed up the handling process for containers to ensure a smooth global supply chain, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported yesterday.

Yantian Port has streamlined declaration and approval procedures for arriving and departing ships, and deployed smart devices such as video surveillance equipment, automatic ship recognition system and patrolling drones.

The city’s transportation bureau has coordinated with shipping companies, asking them to reserve space and open additional liner services to ensure exports of locally made goods, and has opened green channels for container trailers in and out of the city, the Daily said.

All port areas in the city have also strengthened COVID-19 controls for their workers to ensure normal operations.

The pandemic has lowered the logistics efficiency at ports in the U.S. and Europe, resulting in strains on marine transportation and an imbalance between supply and demand, the report said.

Shenzhen Port, the collective name of several ports along the city’s 260-kilometer coastline, operates international routes to more than 300 ports in over 100 countries and regions. It reported a total container throughput of 4.28 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) in January and February this year, maintaining its third position in China, data from the bureau showed.

In March, 132 vessels were berthed at Shenzhen Port each day, with a daily container handling capacity of 64,000 TEUs. Every day, 20,000 container trailers go in and out of the city, according to the bureau.

In 2021, Shenzhen Port handled 28.77 million TEUs, up by 6.8% year on year, ranking the fourth in the world.

In another development, the city’s foreign trade hit 506.78 billion yuan (US$79.53 billion) in the first two months of this year, up 3.1% year on year, Shenzhen Customs said yesterday.

Exports rose by 3.1% year on year to 287.71 billion yuan and imports grew by 3.1% year on year to 219.07 billion yuan.

Trade with South Korea, Chile and India rose significantly. Shenzhen private enterprises’ trade with these countries went up by 6.2% to 311 billion yuan, while State-owned enterprises’ trade went up by 12.5% to 34.87 billion yuan.

Exports of mechanical and electrical products reached 226.68 billion yuan, accounting for 78.8% of the total exports, while imports of mechanical and electrical products took up 80.3% of the total imports.