The Port of Qingdao has said the Dongjiakou Port Area has been officially opened and is now ready to receive commercial vessels.
In a statement, the Port of Qingdao said the Dongjiakou Port Area will save approximately $14.2 million (100 million yuan) a year in logistics costs for companies based in and around it.
While it will be a multipurpose hub, the Dongjiakou Port Area will be mainly used for importing and exporting bulk cargo.
It is one of four port areas in the Port of Qingdao, along with Dagang, Qianwan and Huangdon, the last being a major gateway for oil. Their size means these areas are sometimes referred to as ports in their own right.
The launching of the Dongjiakou Port Area will allow the entire ecosystem to work more effectively, with all of the port areas working together to turn the Port of Qingdao into a “fourth generation port”, a flexible transshipment and import and export hub.
Qingdao is the fifth biggest port in China and eighth busiest in the world, with a TEU traffic of 18.2 million. It is particularly important for China’s overseas maritime strategy and has a share in the Port of Vado Ligure, Italy, which Beijing sees as a key point of entry into Europe.
It is the latest step forward for one of Chine’s major ports; Qingdao, along with others including Tianjin and Guangzhou, are developing and testing the potential of 5G networks as the seek to become ‘smart ports’.
