China's Beibu Gulf Port sees rise in cargo throughput in Q1

NANNING, April 8 (Xinhua) -- In the first quarter of this year, the cargo throughput of Beibu Gulf Port in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region reached 68.77 million tonnes, up 5.5 percent year on year, the port operator said.

According to Beibu Gulf Port Group, more than 1.6 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers were handled by the port, up 14.7 percent year on year.

Thanks to the nighttime quarantine of container ships and the new operation mode implemented by the port to save the docking time of ships, the waiting time for berth decreased by 44 percent year on year and the goods loading and unloading efficiency of container ships increased by 14 percent year on year in the first quarter, the group said.

Since the beginning of this year, the port has been advancing its infrastructure construction, with several portal cranes put into use, greatly improving the overall operational efficiency.

Guangxi's Beibu Gulf Port serves as an important transit point in the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, a trade and logistics passage jointly built by western Chinese provincial regions and Singapore.