Facing the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic this year, YANTIAN made concerted efforts to maintain the smooth operation of the terminal and set new records of servicing super-mega container vessels. We celebrated the maiden voyage of the world's largest 24,000-TEU container vessel, the HMM Algeciras, and set a record of operating on five 200,000-DWT container vessels simultaneously. It was the first time in South China, even in the whole country, and also rare in the world, that such "giants" called at one port at the same time.

Such outstanding mega-vessel service capacity is not achieved overnight. With the aspiration of “building a world-class port” since its establishment, YANTIAN has the foresight in setting high standard in terminal construction. In order to serve the shipping industry's largest vessels for years to come, we proposed the vision of building a terminal “without overhaul for 50 years" and "can accommodate the world's largest container vessels".

Building a terminal without overhaul for 50 years

In the early 1990s, the construction of large-scale container ports in China was just started. Without improved standards, back then, the service life of a berth was merely about 30 years. However, YANTIAN proposed a high-standard construction plan, which was to build a terminal without overhaul for 50 years to ensure the uninterrupted port services. The operation of the port shall never be affected by overhaul.

Under this standard, YANTIAN started the construction of its Phase II Project. With the rapid development and expansion of trade and logistics industry in South China, YANTIAN accelerated the pace of development and started the its Phase III Project and the Expansion Project successively.

Building a terminal that no overhaul will be required for 50 years. (P1)

In 2000, YANTIAN’s Phase II Project passed official inspection. (P2)

In 2006, YANTIAN’s Phase III Project passed official inspection. (P3)

In 2011, YANTIAN’s Expansion Project passed official inspection. (P4)

These projects were awarded the Luban Prize, China's highest accolade for architecture and construction, and the Tien-Yow Jeme Prize, the top honour for construction technology innovation in China, laying a solid foundation for its ambitious journey to a world-class port.

Capable of accommodating multiple largest container vessels of the world at the same time

Since its early days of development, YANTIAN firmly believed in the promising future of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. We were also convinced that the coming of the mega-vessel era would gradually speed up, so the strategy of serving mega-vessels was formulated. Hence, we built up more deep-water berths for the world's largest container vessels. Leveraging its status as a natural deep-water port and the excellent terminal facilities, YANTIAN has built deep-water berths capable for accommodating mega-vessels and has been constantly upgrading the operational equipment and the smart management system. With the calls of mega-vessels on a daily basis, YANTIAN witnesses maiden voyages of vessels with record-breaking carrying capacities and the number of mega-vessels calling at the port simultaneously.

On 23 January 2014, two of the world’s largest 18,000-TEU container vessels visited YANTIAN at the same time. (P5)

On 19 June 2015, YANTIAN received three 18,000-plus TEU container vessels simultaneously. (P6)

On 26 May 2020, five 200,000-DWT mega-vessels berthed at YANTIAN simultaneously. (P7)

Up to now, 100% of the world’s ultra-large container vessels with carrying capacity of over 20,000-TEU are calling at YANTIAN on a regular basis. It is able to handle five vessels of this size at the same time.

Over the years, YANTIAN has made steady progress in its overall operation capacity of serving mega vessels, thanks to its excellent terminal facilities and the smart and advanced management system. If you want to find out how it methodically arranges the simultaneous operation of mega-vessels, safely and efficiently manages an average daily flow of nearly 20,000 container trucks, and quickly locates and plans the containers in a yard with a storage capacity of 400,000 slots, stay tuned with our next feature report!