On the west coast of the Pacific Ocean, in the mid-China's coastline, lies Ningbo Port. It is prospering and arresting world attention. With a long history and a speedy development, the Port has won wide acclaim home and abroad.

The Port of Ningbo is mainly engaged in stevedoring, transferring, warehousing, logistics of containers, iron ore, crude oil and liquid chemicals, coal, etc.
 

Now there are 191 operating berths including 39 10,000-tonnage berths. It is the Port that owns the most large and ultra large deep-water berths in mainland China. In 2004, the cargo thruput broke through 225 million tons, ranking the second in China and the fifth in the world. The container thruput hit 4 million TEUs, ranking the fourth in Mainland China, and the ranking is expected to jump to the world's 18th place from the 22nd in 2003.

Ningbo Port is a rare deep-water port of China, enjoying unique natural conditions. Sheltered by Zhoushan Islands, the port area is free from strong winds and waves. There is no freeze or silt within the port area. The entry channel is normally over 30 meters deep except for a section of 4.5 kilometers being 18.2 meters deep. Large ships up to 250,000 tonnage can navigate freely and those of 250,000 to 300,000 tonnage may come and leave at tide. Ningbo Port is a port that receives the most ultra large ships of more than 100,000 tonnage in China.

The Port of Ningbo boasts the first-class container berths at the Port, with best facilities, environment and quality services. The berths of 2, 838 meters long is 13.5 ~17meters deep at dock apron. They are equipped with 30 bridge cranes with a maximum outreach of 58~63 meters. They are the state-of-the-art container berths of China and can meet the operation needs of container vessel with over 8000 TEUs. Now it has opened 116 container routes, with monthly voyages totaling 500. among them 54 are trunk lines, taking up 46% of the total, ranking the third in Mainland China, only next to Shanghai and Shenzhen. 

The Port regards fine service as the lifeline of the port. Round-the-clock service in

berthing and unberthing is provided for shipping companies to guarantee scheduled operation.

Commitments have been made to guarantee quality, safety and scheduled run for all the

container liners. To improve efficiency, computerized management has been adopted in

container operation. With EDI system set up, the average efficiency per hour for a bridge

crane is 49.2 TEUS at the maximum and that for a whole ship is 262.8 TEUS.

By 2007 a first-class international deep-water hub port and a main line port for ocean-going container transport will take an initial shape, serving as an outer deep-water port for Shanghai International Shipping Center. Meanwhile it wall will also be the leading logistics port of Ningbo and Zhejiang. By then 5 transshipment bases for container, crude oil, iron ore, liquid chemicals and coal, as well as the port logistics information platform will be completed and put into operation.
 
Looking into the future, Mr. Li Linghong, director of Ningbo Port Authority, said confidently: "A new development plan of Ningbo Port has been worked out. By 2007 the port's cargo throughput may reach 250 million tons and container throughput 7 million TEUS; by 2010 cargo throughput may reach 300 million tons and container thruput 10 million TEUS."