The port industry has been growing exponentially in the past few years and 2007 was no different as the year saw a number of new port construction projects come to fruition around the globe. China has been leading the charge with several state-of-the-art container terminal grand openings. Profiled here are two such terminals: Xiamen Songyu and Guangzhou South China Oceangate.
Xiamen Songyu Container Terminal: World-class terminal servicing world’s largest container vessels
Xiamen Songyu Container Terminal is jointly developed, owned and operated by APM Terminals and Xiamen Port Group, each holding a 50 per cent stake. The grand opening of the terminal was held on September 6th, 2007. Madam Wu Yi, Vice Premier of the State Council, presided over the ceremony.
Xiamen Songyu Container Terminal is uniquely positioned at the intersection of the two natural sea lanes leading to Xiamen’s Haicang and Dongdu port areas. It is the closest terminal to the open sea among all container terminals in Xiamen, with a quayside water depth of 17 metres, capable of accommodating the world’s largest container vessels including Emma Maersk.
Advanced handling equipment
Xiamen Songyu Container Terminal is equipped with the most advanced port machinery. It is the first container terminal in Asia to use Eco-RTG, which can save up to 40 per cent of the fuel consumption. The terminal will ultimately deploy 22 ECO-RTGs in 2008, demonstrating its pioneering role in China’s efforts to build a more environmentally friendly society.
Xiamen Songyu Container Terminal has a quay length of 1,246 metres with three container berths and a total land area of 643,637 square metres. It is currently equipped with six quay cranes. Another four will be in place by mid 2008, including two twin 40’ tandem liftings. Xiamen is the largest seaport in Fujian province. The Port handled 4.7 million TEU in 2007, ranked seven among China’s coastal ports.
Strategic location
Strategically located as the gateway for cross Taiwan Strait trade, Xiamen has a vast hinterland as the manufacturing bases for the Taiwanese enterprises. The Central Government has given special incentives to promote Xiamen as a special economic zone in the West Taiwan Strait. Thus we will see a continued throughput
growth in the coming years.
Mr. Kim Gadegaard, Vice President of APM Terminals for Greater China, spoke highly of the Group’s collaboration with Xiamen Municipal Government and the Port that “The opening of our Songyu Joint Venture in Xiamen marks an important milestone in the development of the city of Xiamen towards a truly world-class container port. This new terminal will attract and serve the largest ships and shipping lines from around the world, ensuring that the foreign trade of Xiamen, Fujian and the neighbouring provinces will have the first-class access to global markets for generations to come.”
Xiamen Songyu is China’s first terminal to adopt APM Terminals’ design norms and standards. Throughout the process of design and construction, Xiamen Port Group, China’s local port design institute, and APM terminals maintained close contact with each other and jointly brought about this state-of-the-art container terminal. As a consequence, Emma Maersk’s Xiamen maiden call was made at the Terminal on April 20th 2007, when a total of 700-metre quay and the area at the back were put into soft operation.
