SIMIC

The achievement is significant as 15 years ago the port ranked 15th, and also came in a year when the container operations were interrupted by the Covid crisis.

A ceremonial lift of the 30 millionth container took place on the morning of December 16 in the Meishan Port District with the decorated box hoisted aboard the 20,000-TEU Cosco Shipping Pisces. To emphasise the port's success at automation, only 50 nautical miles from Shanghai, the command for the container lift was given remotely and employed a remote-controlled bridge crane and a smart truck.

China currently has seven of the 10 busiest container ports in the world. The Ningbo Zhoushan port complex experienced just over a four per cent growth in volume in 2020 handling 28.7 million TEU.

While it is among the fastest-growing ports, it is behind Shanghai with its 43.5 million TEU in 2020, and Singapore with its 37 million TEU.