Liu Zhiliang

As a big port province, Shandong has over recent years sped up port capability construction, actively explored hinterland market and ensured steady growth of port production. At the press briefing of “Carrying out the 19th Party Congress Spirit” held by the Shandong Government’s Information Office on December 29, 2017, a principal of the Shandong Provincial Transport Department made a brief account of Shandong port and shipping developments over recent years and identified the development goals during the 13th Five-Year Plan period. During the 12th Five-Year Plan period, Shandong coastal ports accelerated building large modern specialized deep-water wharves,accumulated investments of RMB54.25 billion, completed construction of world class large professional deep-water terminals for 400000t ore, 300000t crude oil, 226000m3 LNG, 20000TEU containers, substantially improved provincial coastal port unloading capacity.So far, Shandong coastal port production berths have reached 581, including 297 above 10000t deep-water berths.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, Shandong targets at building Shandong international shipping center based on the peninsular port cluster,boosts transformation from a big province of port and shipping to a power of port and shipping, strives to realize overall leading position of coastal ports in infrastructure,operating capacity, scientific and technological information, green safety and economic adaptability in China.

Port Throughput a New Step Every 5 Years

Coastal port throughput has been dubbed as barometer of the national economic development and the national economic development speed is closely related to the port production growth. Jiang Cheng, director general of the Shandong Provincial Transport Department, said as of December 28, 2017, the provincial coastal port throughput has broken through 1.5 billion tons, achieving a growth of 5.4% over the same period of 2016, with aggregation ranking first in China. Its foreign trade completed 790 million tons,metal ore completed 360 million tons,liquid bulk cargo completed 248 million tons, all ranking first in China; containers completed 25.30 million TEUs, accounting for almost 1/5 of the total cargo throughput of coastal ports. In top 10 coastal ports in terms of cargo throughput, Shandong Qingdao port, Rizhao port and Yantai port ranked fifth, ninth and tenth respectively.

It takes 46 years for throughput broke through 100 million tons and 7 years from 100 million tons to 200 million tons; it broke through 500 million tons in 2007, broke through 1 billion tons in 2012 and broke through 1.5 billion tons in 2017, a step upward every five years,Shandong achieved one after another historical breakthrough in port and shipping construction. Jiang Cheng said on one hand the rapid growth of Shandong port production as important embodiment of development of the national economy directly reflected good momentum of Shandong economic and social development; on the other hand, greatleap-forward development of coastal port and shipping industry substantially boosted building Shandong modern comprehensive transport system, driving relevant industry development, optimizing deployment of the industrial makeup,expanding open-up and improving regional comprehensive competitiveness and sustainable development capability.

Port Supply-Side Reform Pays off

In the growth of gross scale,Shandong coastal ports have taken supplyside structure reform as principal line,expedited transformation and upgrading and considerably improves upsizing,specialization and intelligentization,completed world class large specialized deep-water berths, and substantially improved provincial unloading capacity of coastal ports. Since 2017, Shandong port and shipping infrastructure construction has made remarkable achievements,Qingdao port Wanbang ore terminal 200000t berth, Yantai port Xigang area Phase I ore terminal 150000t and 300000t berths are completed in succession; Rizhao port Lanshan port area 300000t ore terminal has been put into trial operation. To date, Shandong coastal port production berths have reached 581, including 297 deep-water 100000t berths.

At present, Shandong maritime capacity has steadily expanded in structural readjustment, and port intelligentization has improved. Shandong Shipping Co Ltd has vigorously developed VLOC and LPG carrier fleet, total capacity has caught up from behind,ranking third in China. It has now formed the industrial layout dominated by international ocean-going transport and international trade and offshore engineering equipment construction and repair as important supplement.In May 2017, the RMB7-billion-plus Qingdao port automatic wharf was put into operation, annual throughput reached 5.2 million TEUs, able to accommodate world largest 20000TEU container vessel,single unit average operation efficiency created world record and became an automatic wharf of the highest automation in the world and Asia’s first in real sense. Meanwhile, Shandong modern shipping service sector has developed rapidly from zero, functions of the Qingdao International Shipping Service Center, Qingdao Shipping Exchange and Rizhao Bulk Commodities Trading Center are increasingly complete, and shipping formats are diversified; the Qingdao International Shipping Service Center has in succession released China-Korea, China-Japan and Northeast Asia Shipping Index and “Belt and Road”Qingdao Shipping Index.

Building International Shipping Center by 2020

Coastal port development has entered an interim adjustment period,Shandong port and shipping industry will accelerate stride from overall adaptability and moderately advanced to leading development and realize big-tostrong process in infrastructure, transport equipment, transport organization, network layout and innovation drive. Jiang Cheng said Shandong port and shipping industry will take building Shandong International Shipping Center based on peninsular port cluster as the goal, focus on overall implementation of maritime passage construction project, vigorously develop modern shipping service trade, expedite smart port and shipping construction,strive to uplift green development, make an unremitting effort to strengthen five items of safety supervision in a bid to achieve high quality development.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, Shandong coastal port infrastructure construction planned investments will hit RMB45 billion to optimize existing port area layout and wharf and berth structure, no new coastal port area will be planned, no below 30000t general-purpose berths will be built, instead, specialized, large-scale and modernized port area will be built,existing port area layout and wharf and berth structure will be optimized, layout of special berths for LNG carrier, LPG carrier, cruiser, commodity car ferry,passenger/ro-ro ship will be sped up;port collecting and distributing system will be further perfected; Qingdao,Rizhao and Yantai shipping service cluster area construction will be further strengthened, and Qingdao, Yantai,Weihai and Rizhao port cruiser service functions will be perfected; smart ports will be built with “Internet+” as engine and by introducing could computation,big data, Beidou navigation and other new generation advanced technologies;advanced experience in energy conservation and emission reduction advanced technologies and demonstration projects will be disseminated, driving port and shipping green development with a view that large specialized berths on coastal ports have capacity to supply shore power to ships by 2020; construction of safety responsibility system featuring“the Party and government share the same responsibility, one post and two responsibilities, dereliction of duty to be held liable” will be promoted in an allround way, and the safety responsibility network will be further tightened.

At the same time, centering on construction of the International Shipping Center, Liu Fucheng, deputy director general of the Shandong Transport Department, said Shandong will speed up construction modern port cluster and developed shipping industry, strive to basically complete the International Shipping Center with highly pooled shipping resources, consummate shipping service functions, good shipping market environment, efficient modern logistics services and global shipping resource allocation capability by 2030. The province will boost transformation from a big port and shipping province to a powerful province, strive to achieve overall leading position of coastal ports in infrastructure, operating capacity, scientific and technological information, green safety and economic adaptability.★