Editor’s Note: river of no return, Long Juan Wan Li. The Yangtze River Economic Belt spans three major plates in China’s eastern, central and western regions, and its population size and economic aggregate occupy half of the country. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the General Secretary of the Supreme Leader has personally planned, deployed and promoted the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the founding of New China and the 10th anniversary of the official rise of the Yangtze River Economic Belt as a national strategy, Jiangsu, China.com, a new Jiangsu client, launched a series of reports, focusing on the events with the characteristics of "the first time" and "the first in the world" created by the 11 provinces and cities involved in the Yangtze River Economic Belt in the 75 years of development, especially since the 18th National Congress, or "the first in China" or "the first in the world" born in the leap-forward development.
Most: the automated container terminal with the largest throughput in the world.
"I hoisted the 40th TEU and the first box of goods in the first China International Import Expo(CIIE)."
The bridge crane rises and falls, and the huge ship goes in and out. Looking at the huge container yard on the monitoring screen, Huang Hua looked proud. As a bridge crane driver of Yangshan Port of Shanghai Port Group, he witnessed Yangshan Port dominating the global port throughput for 12 consecutive years.
"If we connect the containers that we lift at Yangshan Port pier every year, we can circle the earth three times!"
At the intersection of rivers and seas, the Yangtze River Economic Belt is connected with the Maritime Silk Road, and Yangshan Port "swallows" the world.
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More than 20 years ago, Yangshan was only a small island on the East China Sea. Because the average water depth was more than 15 meters, it naturally had the conditions to build a deep-water port.
1995年底，为支持浦东开发开放，国家决定建设上海国际航运中心，上海港获得了前所未有的发展机遇。
2002年6月26日，洋山深水港打下第一根桩。2005年12月10日，港区一期工程正式建成开港。当第一个集装箱被高高吊起，历史性的一刻被定格——上海告别没有深水良港的历史，从“江河时代”迈入“海洋时代”。
这一天，是全体洋山港建设者终生难忘的开港纪念日。
“算起来，我在洋山港21年了。”黄华在上港集团的工作经历与洋山深水港的发展几乎同步，从外高桥港四期，到洋山港一期，再到如今的洋山港四期。
“一期建成的时候，设施简陋，条件艰苦，我们都要自带生活物资到岛上上班，码头也没什么货物，全部投入运营后，一年也就1000多万标准箱的量级。”
后来，随着二、三期工程的相继建成，港口的年吞吐量以千万级实现逐级攀升——2011年突破3000万标准箱、2017年突破4000万标准箱，黄华也从一名新手桥吊操作员成长为一名技术精湛、经验丰富的“前辈”。
虽然有“千万箱”的荣誉加身，但黄华印象最深的还是自动化码头开港的“第一箱”。
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If 2005 is the first year for Yangshan Port to enter the "ocean age", then 2017 will open a "new era" of the intelligent age-this year, Shanghai Yangshan Phase IV automatic terminal officially opened for trial operation.
From construction to operation, Yangshan Port Phase IV took only three years. From the moment it was born, Yangshan Port wore a series of auras: the world’s largest island-type deep-water artificial port, the world’s largest automated container terminal, and the operation integration platform are 100% "China Core" … It has attracted worldwide attention and has become a benchmark for the port industry.
It is unprecedented for such a large-scale automated terminal to be completed and put into operation at one time.
However, Rome was not built in a day, and the pier was not built overnight. The technical blank is the biggest difficulty and pain point in the construction of Yangshan Phase IV. In the early stage of R&D, the port was faced with foreign technical blockade, and there were no ready-made cases for reference. For example, the understanding of the concept of "automation" and what kind of convenience it could achieve were all blank, and the R&D team had to start from scratch and try to write the code. "Without textbooks, we write our own development ideas; Without software support, we write our own code; We can’t see foreign core technologies, and we create our own systems. " In order to fight for this tone, all port builders have started an arduous road of development.
In 2016, as an experienced employee, Huang Hua was selected to join the operating system preparation team of Yangshan Phase IV automatic terminal, becoming the first batch of technical employees who experienced and practiced "hanging boxes from a distance".
"For about a year and a half, the entire preparatory group ate and lived on the island, going to the island on Monday and going to the island on Friday. Debugging drills are carried out at 7 o’clock every morning and go to sleep at 2 or 3 o’clock the next morning. " Looking back at those years, Huang Hua was very emotional.
At the beginning, the debugging was not smooth, the connection between instructions was slow, and it took 13 minutes to lift a container. At the same time, it also faced the challenges of unfavorable factors such as equipment failure and bad weather. "Later, the better the operating procedures, the higher the degree of cooperation between software and hardware. It took us only 4 minutes and 20 seconds to load and unload 10 containers, which is a great progress!"
"ITOS, an automated terminal operation control system independently developed by us, has broken the monopoly of foreign technology and achieved technological overtaking in one fell swoop." The relevant person in charge of the technical center of Shanghai Port Group said that what is more valuable is that the integrated platform of the largest single automated terminal in the world is all made of "China Core" and will not be stuck! By October, 2024, this technology has been popularized and applied in 14 terminals around the world, demonstrating the strength of "China Zhizao, China Service and China Brand".
Informatization, digitalization and intelligence have also improved the operational capacity of Yangshan Port in an all-round way.
"I have been driving a bridge crane at the traditional pier for 12 years. At that time, I had to operate in a narrow space at an altitude of 45 meters. We all tried to drink as little water as possible. We kept bending over and bowing our heads for 12 hours and repeated actions." Huang Hua said that if it is a traditional container terminal, the Yangshan Phase IV terminal should have at least a thousand people, and now a few hundred people are enough.
Just a few hundred people are not seen in the port, and everyone is monitoring the operation in the central control room. On the empty yard, only the bridge crane slides on the track, without the automatic guidance of the cab, the container is shuttled back and forth, and the whole dock operates 24 hours a day and automatically loads and unloads. The labor cost of the wharf is reduced by 70%, but the production efficiency is increased by 30%, and the labor productivity is 213% of that of the traditional wharf.
In 2023, the container throughput of Shanghai Port exceeded 49 million TEUs, ranking first in the world for 14 consecutive years. The container throughput of Yangshan Port Area exceeded 25 million TEUs, up 4.6% year-on-year, accounting for about 51% of the total throughput of the home port (Shanghai Port), setting a new historical record.
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In 2018, when General Secretary of the Supreme Leader visited Shanghai, he made a video connection with Yangshan Port Phase IV automatic terminal to listen to the introduction of terminal construction and operation.
"The general secretary said that an economic power must be a maritime power and a shipping power. We are required to have the ambition and courage to be world-class, do the best if we want to do it, and strive to create more world firsts. " At that time, it was Huang Hua who participated in the video connection. He was using the automation system to lift the goods. Huang Hua said that this concern and expectation has become a common guide for Yangshan builders. "The General Secretary has always been concerned about the construction and development of Yangshan Port. He hopes that Shanghai will build, manage and develop Yangshan Port well and play a greater role in China’s comprehensive opening up and joint construction of the Belt and Road."
With small water depth and wide waterway, facing the vast Pacific Ocean and backed by the Yangtze River Delta, the most economically active region in China, Yangshan Port was born as an important gateway connecting the Yangtze River Delta economy with overseas markets.
On September 24, 2024, a container ship loaded with electric forklifts and electric power-assisted bicycles arrived at Yangshan Port after a day’s sailing from Nanjing Port, and the container was loaded on the ocean-going ship MSC LENI and exported overseas. This marks the normal operation of the "water-water transfer" transportation mode of "new three kinds" goods "one order to the end" and "one box to the end" between Shanghai and the Soviet Union.
"New Three Kinds" refers to electric vehicles, lithium batteries and photovoltaic products. In recent years, the export demand of the "New Three Samples" is strong. "In the past, the" New Three Samples ",as dangerous goods, involved the declaration procedures of dangerous goods in multiple ports, and the declaration and approval period was long and the procedures were cumbersome." According to the staff of Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration, under the background of the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, the maritime departments of Shanghai and the Soviet Union set up special working classes to explore and promote the new mode of "water-water transit" transportation of dangerous goods with the most urgent demand and the most typical export.
For this reason, the ports and maritime departments in Shanghai and the Soviet Union took the lead in realizing the business collaboration and data sharing between the "originating port" and the "transit port" and mutual recognition of regulatory results. It is unnecessary for the maritime administrative agency of the transit port to stop unpacking inspection of containers, and the total number of declarations for ships passing through the two ports has also been reduced from 6 to 3, saving 2 to 4 days in the total declaration period.
Under the background of the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, the linkage between Yangshan Port and surrounding ports has been continuously strengthened. Yangshan Customs has made several ports, such as Anji Port in Zhejiang and Taicang Port in Jiangsu, become extensions of Yangshan Port through the "linkage loading and unloading" mode, which greatly saved the logistics cost and transportation time of enterprises. According to statistics, in the first half of 2024, Yangshan Customs supervised a total of 287,000 TEUs of import and export goods in the mode of "joint loading and unloading", up 32.7% year-on-year, benefiting more than 500 import and export enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta.
Actively promote the corresponding measures for the integration and development of the Yangtze River Delta, innovate the working mechanism, serve first, and take the initiative … Yangshan Port and the maritime agencies of the Yangtze River Delta are working together to build a first-class business environment with "more favorable policies, more beneficial measures, more caring services and safer production", and the "new coordinates of the Yangtze River Delta" are becoming more and more eye-catching in the economic geography map.
As an important hub of the Belt and Road Initiative and global resource allocation, Yangshan Port is moving towards the world with a more open and inclusive attitude.
Planning hang chunyan
Executive Dai Junnong Zhang Yanyan
Member Qiang Huijuan Cao Yu
Editor: Qiang Huijuan
Source: New Jiangsu Client Jiangsu, China Network