It is the third anniversary of the operation start of the Nansha Port (phase 1) in southern end of Guangzhou, China, today. The port’s containers throughput has gained a huge leap from the one three years ago, reaching a monthly volume of 320,000 standard containers (sc) at the most.

The monthly volume is to get 400,000 sc when the six deep berths of phase 2 will be put into operation on September 29 (tomorrow). The deep berths will increase to ten in total.

It is expected the annual cargo throughput of Nansha Port would reach 340 million tons and 9 million sc in 2007, according to Mr. Cai Jinlong, a board director of the port operating group.

Its present navigation channel is as deep as 15.5 meters, capable for the world’s largest container vessel all day. The channel will be deepened to 20 meters for huge 13,000-sc liners into Guangzhou Port.

The operation cost of companies has been substantially saved, thanks to this deep-water port. The transportation cost thru the Nansha Port is lower by about 33.3% to 66.7% than other big ports in the Pearl River Delta.

It does much good to the industries like shipbuilding, petrochemical and steel, and many international big names established factories and offices in Nansha, Mr. Cai said.

Twenty-four worldwide shipping routes connect Nansha and the ports in Europe, America and near the Red Sea. Nine of the world’s top ten shipping tycoons launched liners connecting the Nansha port, like Maersk and Hanjin.

(By Ronald Li)