Posted on October 23, 2024
The city is investing in infrastructure and technology to support growth, while also liberalising its finance sector to attract international shipping businesses
Container ports in Shanghai are set to handle record cargo volumes this year, with the city pledging to continue liberalising its shipping industry to play a world-leading role.
These developments come amid a slowdown in China’s exports, which have fallen for four straight months, while the outlook for the shipping industry remains clouded by uncertainties because of heightened geopolitical tensions and concerns about recession in some parts of the global economy.
Mayor Gong Zheng told the North Bund Forum, a shipping industry conference, on Tuesday that Shanghai would handle more than 50 million 20-foot equivalent unit (TEU) containers this year, enough to help the city retain its crown as the world’s No. 1 container port.
“Shanghai will become the world’s first city to break through the 50-million TEU threshold,” Gong said, adding that the government will continue allocating resources to build Shanghai into an international shipping centre.
The city handled 49.16 million TEUs last year, an increase of 3.9 per cent from 2022. The mainland’s most developed metropolis has remained the world’s biggest container port since 2010 when it overtook Singapore, which is currently placed second.
In the first nine months of 2024, Shanghai handled 39.1 million TEUs, 8 per cent higher than a year earlier.
The mayor said Shanghai would liberalise its finance sector and fine-tune its legal system to support marine insurance, maritime arbitration and shipbroking, echoing suggestions by Hong Kong’s former chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, to attract international carriers and traders with improved maritime services.
Leung told the Shanghai-Hong Kong Cooperation and Development Forum last week that shipping services, rather than volume, will define global shipping centres.
Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng told the North Bund Forum shipping industry conference on Tuesday that the city would promote the use of clean energy and digital technology at its ports.
Gong told the forum that Shanghai would also promote the use of clean energy and digital technology to bolster industry efficiency amid rising container volume.
Shenergy Group, a leading natural gas supplier in Shanghai, is building facilities to turn the city’s food waste into green methanol, an alternative fuel for the carbon-intensive shipping industry.
Facilities capable of producing 70,000 to 100,000 tonnes of green methanol from leftover food will be ready by the end of 2025, Shi Pingyang, vice-president of Shenergy, said in May.
The fourth phase of the Yangshan deep water port in Shanghai is also the world’s largest automated container terminal. The 2,350-metre harbour uses hundreds of automated vehicles to handle loading, discharging and transporting containers round the clock.
Shanghai is also adding handling capacity at Yangshan, where the level of automation will be enhanced to facilitate increased cargo flows.
Last year, the Shanghai Futures Exchange launched the Containerized Freight Index Futures compiled by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange, creating a hedging tool for shippers, freight forwarders and cargo owners amid sluggish trade and volatile ocean freight rates.
China’s exports dropped for a fourth consecutive month in August, falling 8.8 per cent year on year to US$284.9 billion. The decline, however, narrowed from 14.5 per cent in July and was better than the 9.5 per cent drop forecast by financial data provider Wind.
Cai Huixing, president of Shanghai Shipowners’ Association, said last week that ocean freight rates for goods leaving Chinese ports were expected to drop further in the next two months amid a glut of container vessels.
