Yantai Port, located in northeastern part of the Shandong
Peninsula, has taken a developmental leap by relying on reform and
innovation in recent years.
Last year, the port achieved goods throughput of 80.88 million
tons and container throughput of 1.17 million TEUs (Twenty-foot
Equivalent Units), a year-on-year growth of 33.8 percent and 68
percent respectively.
The high-speed growth continued in the first five months of this
year as well.
"During the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-10), the rapid
growth of Yantai Port's goods and container throughput makes it one
of the fastest growing ports among China's coastal ports," said
Zhou Bo, president of Yantai Port Group.
According to the 11th Five-Year Plan, Yantai Port will achieve
goods throughput of 160 million tons, container throughput of 10
million TEUs, and passenger throughput of 4.8 million person-times
in 2010, said Zhou.
In 2020, the throughputs will stand at 310 million tons, 10
million TEUs, and 6 million person-times respectively.
In its development strategy, the port has made the container,
bulk cargo, and ro-ro passenger transport as its three big pillars.
In 2006, the container throughput exceeded 1 million TEUs, making
Yantai one of the top 10 coastal ports in China and turning it into
the hub port for domestic container trade in northern China.
As the main passenger transport port along Bohai Bay, Yantai
Port's passenger flow per year surpasses 3 million. The
Yantai-Dalian train ferry, put into operation last year, has made
Yantai Port a transport hub linking the northeastern and eastern
railways, with transport volume of more than 6 million tons
annually, added Zhou.
Yantai Port relies on the strategic policy of "one center, two
basic points and one shoreline" to speed up its development.
"One center" is to build the port's powerful competitive
advantage and maintain its sustainable development. One of the "two
basic points" is to help Zhifu Bay, the old port district, develop
steadily, while the other is to accelerate development of the new
area of West Port, making it the "main force" of Yantai Port's
development.
West Port is expected to ultimately achieve the enormous annual
capacity of 200 million tons of goods throughput and container
throughput of 15 million TEUs.
"One shoreline" refers to the scientific, rapid, and orderly
control of the northern coastline of the Shandong Peninsula,
establishing more "bridgeheads" for the port's development and
enabling the port to gradually enlarge its hinterland, making the
Yantai Port area bigger.
It will take 5 to 10 years to turn Yantai Port into a third
generation modernized port featuring ecologically sustainable
development.
The goal is to make it China's coastal hub port and a center for
international integrated logistics, as well as an international
container mainline harbor, the main transport corridor for the
Jiaodong and Liaodong peninsulas, an important petroleum reserve
base and a harbor industrial base.
"Yantai port will be built into a comprehensive main hub port,"
Zhou asserted.
The local government will actively develop the harbor industry
and modern logistics operations and enhance the port's core
competitiveness by accelerating infrastructure construction.
Through promotion of functional restructuring and overall
planning, rational adjustment of the layout of local functions, and
allowing the region's advantages in terms of natural resources to
have full play, Yantai Port will be built into a modernized main
hub port based on the Zhifu Bay, Longkou and Penglai port
districts. Its core strengths are expected to be the construction
and development of West Port and network-based management.
Zhou further said that Yantai Port will develop a modern harbor
industry by its geographical advantage of being located close to
the Yantai export processing and economic development zones.
As Zhifu Bay Port District is close to Yantai export processing
zone, Yantai Port is speeding up the pace of zone-port combined
construction and vigorously developing the harbor's bonded
logistics services.
According to the plan, three big harbor industry districts will
be constructed over a 26-sq km area to the rear of West Port
District, and will include a processing industry, a chemical
industry, and an integrated logistics park, accounting for 5.3,
3.7, and 3.6 sq km respectively.
The harbor industrial park will have 200 processing enterprises
and port services in three to five years, making the Yantai harbor
industry the main force behind speeding up Yantai Port's
development.
During the 11th Five-Year plan period, Yantai Port Group plans
to build processing and manufacturing bases, develop the coastal
economic industrial belt and accelerate industrial
restructuring.
Dominant operations, such as in transportation of containers,
bulk, oil and chemicals, as well as that of passengers and goods
ro-ro transport will be the focus of the port's development.
(China Daily June 26, 2007)