Ningbo Port expects over 10m TEUs this year

Tong Mengda, chief economist of Ningbo Port Group says the Port of Ningbo in Zhejiang province in the eastern China expects to handle container throughput of over ten million TEUs - where a TEU is a standard container - in 2008.

The railway, highway, and shipping and aviation infrastructure have improved so that Tong Mengda thinks the the container throughput will reach 10.6 million TEUs and the cargo throughput will be about 360 million tonnes in 2008.

This past year - 2207 - the port recorded a container throughput of over nine million TEUs. The figure is 31% higher than the container throughput in 2006. For seven consecutive years the port has had the largest growth among all major coastal ports in China. The new container throughput may help the port obtain the 11th position, up from the 13th, in global ranking.