When contemplating the contemporary mega-terminal what immediately springs to mind is Yangshan Deep-Water Port, the Port of Shanghai’s largest terminal, which opened for business in 2005. It is built south of China’s largest port on two small, partly bulldozed islands which are fixed to another via reclaimed land. The 33 kilometre, six-lane Donghai Bridge, which I had the privilege to cross ten years ago, connects Yangshan to Shanghai’s Pudong New Area.
Along a nearly 6 kilometre quay with a 16 metre water depth, Yangshan boasts 64 STS container gantry cranes. The building of a 2.4 kilometre quay line at Yangshan – known as Phase Four – started earlier this year and is aimed to be completed by 2017. A fifth and last phase should take annual handling capacity to 15 million TEU by 2020.
There are many more mega-terminals in China and elsewhere in the Far East, with Singapore and PSA’s four adjacent terminals as the leading facility. The 17.5 kilometre quay line with 14.6-18.0 metre water berths collates 212 quay cranes in total, providing a 37 million TEU capacity. Most notable in the case of Singapore is the new Tuas Terminal…
