Shanghai's container throughput continued to show strong momentum and the city remained the world's busiest port for the third straight month since overtaking Singapore in August, the port authority said.
Throughput of containers was up 8.1 percent from a year ago to 2.35 million twenty equivalent units in October, ahead of Singapore's 2.31 million TEUs, the Shanghai Statistics Bureau and the city's immigration office said in a joint statement yesterday.
Shanghai port handled 33.5 million tons of dry bulk goods in October, a 7 percent jump from the same period last year. Waigaoqiao Port handled 1.17 million TEUs while turnover at Yangshan Deep Water Port was 835,100 TEUs.
The city already became the largest port for dry bulk goods in 2008 with a 369-million ton throughput.
Waigaoqiao and Yangshan are the two major container ports in the city, which also boasts several other minor dry bulk good ports.
Collective throughput of containers reached 23.95 million TEUs in the first ten months this year, 17 percent higher than that of last year.
The State Council last year issued guidelines for Shanghai to become a major international financial center and shipping hub by 2020.
The city government launched a commission at the end of last year to unify oversight of the city's major ports, Waigaoqiao and Yangshan, as well as three free-trade zones as part of its efforts to develop an international shipping hub. The commission is also boosting efforts to build Pudong into a region with modern shipping and logistics service.