The Port of Qingdao saw container shipping of 10 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) today, marking another milestone since shipping through the port reached 300 million tons on Dec 13 this year, said the company in a statement.
The company expects the total container throughput to hit 10.21 million TEUs in 2009.
Affected by the economic slowdown since last year, global ports this year suffered a two-digit decline year-on-year for container shipping.
The port attributed its success despite the gloomy industry situation to a positive cargo collection team and its strategy to work together with ship owners and shippers.
Tian Guangwen, vice president of Port of Qingdao, said they offered free stack service for over 700,000 empty containers this year to cut costs for their clients. Meanwhile, the company increased business by using containers to deliver bulk cargo such as steel material by 13.5 percent year-on-year.
Nearly 20 new freight lines to South America and the Middle East were opened in Port of Qingdao when most shipping companies cut main lines to Europe and North America. On June 17, the port added two main lines simultaneously to Europe and the US.
From June to December, 2009, Qingdao Qianwan Container Terminal, a joint venture of Maersk, DP World, COSCO and Port of Qingdao extended the partnership to Hong Kong-based Pan-Asia Investment Group and China Merchants Group (Hong Kong). The extended joint venture invested $1.4 billion for the fourth stage of Qianwan dock, including 10 deep-water berths and expanding the total dock length to 3,408 meters.
