By IANS,
Shanghai : The Shanghai port has handled a record 30 million containers this year and is set to retain the world’s busiest port title after overtaking Singapore in 2010, a media report said Saturday.
The port saw its container traffic volume surpass 30 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) Friday. It is an unprecedented number in the world’s port history and marks a new beginning in its endeavour to become a global shipping centre by 2020, the Shanghai Times reported.
China’s remarkable trade boom is reflected in the Shanghai port numbers, which rose 7,951 TEUs in 1978 to 29.05 million TEUs in 2010, it said.
The customs oversaw a $790 billion worth of imports and exports in the first three quarters of this year – a 19.3 percent year-on-year increase.
The Shanghai port handled 23.9 million TEUs over the first 10 months — more than that of Singapore’s 23.56 million TEUs.
The Shanghai International Port (Group) Co., the port operator, predicted the port’s container throughput to reach 31.5 million TEUs by the end of the year, the daily said.
Singapore’s annual container traffic figure will be released in January.
“As the world’s shipping industry … faces economic uncertainties, Shanghai port, with its container traffic already at such high level, has to stick to its innovation-driven model to blaze out a path toward sustainable growth,” the Shanghai government said on its website.