Shanghai, a coastal metropolis located in east China, is accelerating its paces to build a world-class international shipping center, said an official on the 2021 North Bund Forum on November 3.
The city, as one of the most stable growth poles in the global shipping network, demonstrated great resilience in fending off risks together with China's shipping industry amid the repeated resurgences of the COVID-19 epidemic worldwide.
In 2020, Shanghai port saw its container throughput ranking the first globally for 11 years in a row and Yangshan port, a highly automated container terminal, ran busily with its annual throughput exceeding 20 million TEUs for the first time last year.
In spite of the unprecedented shocks from the global COVID-19 pandemic, Shanghai has gained more and more attention and acknowledgement from the international shipping sector.
On November 4, eight achievements of the 2021 North Bund Forum approached the public, including the cooperation consensus reached between Shanghai Municipal People's Government and International Maritime Organization, and completion of the standard auditing of Shanghai (Export) Containerized Freight Index based on Settled Rates by International Organization of Securities Commissions.
It is also noteworthy that the global air transport industry carbon emission reduction cooperation initiative was released on the forum as one of its eight achievements, dedicated to boosting green development of the whole air transportation industry.
By far this year, Shanghai has comprehensively completed its international shipping center construction, with continuous efforts poured into improving its modern shipping services such as shipping transactions, shipping financial insurances, maritime arbitration, shipping and legal information service.
As a local official introduced, global influences of the city as an international shipping center has been growing as a host of reputed global shipping organizations have established regional headquarters, branches or other project companies in Shanghai.
According to the city's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) on international shipping center construction, its annual container throughput will reach at least 47 million TEUs by 2025, the annual throughput of air-passenger travel will reach at least 130 million, and the annual throughput of cargo ships will reach 4.1 million tonnes or above.
Source: Xinhua Silk Road