A wharf in Yantian port zone of Shenzhen port in south China's Guangdong Province. File Photo: Xinhua

China’s southern Shenzhen Port has handled 30 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) this year, reaching the milestone three weeks earlier than in 2025, the city's transport authorities said, with APEC member economies accounting for more than half of the port's foreign trade volume.

Cargo flows between Shenzhen Port and all APEC member economies make up over 50 percent of the city's total foreign trade, the authorities said. The 16 Asia-Pacific sister ports partnered with Shenzhen Port form a complete supply-demand chain. APEC member economies are the port’s largest export market and a key source of raw materials.

Shenzhen Port reached the container throughput milestone earlier than last year, thanks to systematic efforts to seize opportunities from global economic and trade recovery and to keep expanding its global shipping routes.

As of October 17, throughput stood at 30.10 million TEU, up 7.7 percent from a year earlier, with loaded-container throughput up 8.0 percent. The port has opened more than 270 international container liner routes and runs over 30 regular point-to-point cross-border e-commerce sea express services.

In the first nine months of the year, Shenzhen Port handled more than 290,000 vehicles and automotive knock-down kits by sea, up 40.7 percent year on year, including more than 160,000 complete vehicles, up 53.2 percent.

Steady high-volume operations at Shenzhen Port are underpinned by forward-looking smart port infrastructure. Its Yantian East Terminal is equipped with China’s largest automated twin-lift quay cranes, which can handle 32,000-TEU ultra-large container vessels, 33 percent bigger than the world’s largest ships currently in service. Mawan Smart Port, the country’s first smart terminal upgraded from a conventional container dock and Shenzhen’s first pilot project under China’s initiative to become a transport powerhouse, uses an independently developed terminal operating system alongside a 5G autonomous truck management platform to automate core terminal workflows.

The port is now pressing ahead with full-chain, multi-dimensional green upgrades. It has installed power facilities at 124 berths for a 95-percent coverage rate. Shore power consumption in the first nine months reached 47.7 million kWh, up 34 percent year-on-year. South China’s most powerful fully electric smart tugboat is now in service. Shenzhen Port’s LNG bunkering volume exceeded 440,000 cubic meters from January to September, up 19.4 percent year-on-year, placing the port second nationwide and fourth globally.

Global Times