Ningbo, World Top-level Deepwater HarborThe basic engineering work for a 1238-meter-long international container terminal has been completed in Beilun Harbor of Ningbo, and loading and unloading facilities for its four berths have been put in place, with the first one going into trial operation early this year.The container terminal, with the natural water as deep as minor-15 meters and a loading bridge capable of stretching out 60.5 meters, has brought a net increase of 1 million standard containers to Ningbo Harbor's annual container handling capacity and made it one of the world's best harbors in terms of deep-water condition and handling capacity. The 1200-year-old Ningbo Port is one of China's three ancient harbors. During the Ninth Five-Year Plan period (1996-2000), Ningbo Port, giving full play to its superiority of an ice- and silt-free good harbor with deepwater navigation channels, broad land area and suitable location, has received a harbor construction fund of nearly 2.2 bn yuan for technological renovation, which has greatly boosted the port's handling capacity. As a result, the verified passing capacity of the productive berth has nearly doubled. The port's actual handling capacity this year has topped 100m tons, a net increase of over 40m tons in 1995, with the growth rate taking the front ranks in the country and rarely seen in the world history of port development. At present, the harbor has 10 lines sailing to Europe, South America and the Middle East, covering 533 ports in 88 countries and regions. By the end of this November, the container handling capacity of Ningbo Harbor had exceeded 800,000 standard containers, up 50.8 percent over the same period of the previous year. By PD Online Staff Li Heng |
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