The Shanghai government is looking to deepen its reforms in its quest to become a global shipping hub by boosting the throughput capacity of cargo and upgrading airport infrastructure and shipping services in the Yangtze River Delta.

'The city is aiming to become a global shipping hub by 2020 with high-level shipping resources that can offer comprehensive shipping services,efficient logistics and have resource allocation capabilities,"said Zhang Lin, deputy director of Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission.

According to the 13th Five-Year Plan regarding the development of Shanghai into a global shipping center, the Port of Shanghai is expected to maintain its position as the world's leading port with an annual container throughput of 42 million TEUs.

The annual cargo throughput reached 717 million in 2015, with the throughput for containers exceeding 36 million TEUs, the highest in the world.

"The fourth phase of the Yangshan Deep-water Port is an automated terminal project which will be put into trial production by next year with an extra 4 million TEUs," said Zhang.

Yangshan Deep-water Port,part of the Port of Shanghai,is situated at the estuary of Hangzhou Bay and is the nearest deep-water port to Shanghai. The port has constantly been expanding to cope with the increasing volume of goods since commencing operations in late 2005.

In the context of the cruise industry, the Port of Shanghai is expected to become one of the largest cruise ports in the Asia Pacific region by 2020.Authorities also aim to make the facility the home port to between 12 and 15 cruises, with annual tourist visitor numbers between 1.5 to 2 million.

In 2015, the Port of Shanghai welcomed 345 cruises and 821,200 visitors, making it the world's eighth busiest cruiseport.

On the aviation front,Shanghai's authorities are planning to construct the world's largest satellite hall as well as the new Terminal 3 which will cover 622,000 square meters - larger than the airport's T1 terminal. This expansion will boost airport capacity to 120 million passenger visits annually, a significant increase over last year's 99 million.

The project, located south of the two existing terminals,will be connected to one another via a rapid transit system. Jia Ruijun, the deputy president of Shanghai Airport Authority, said that this transportation system will shorten the walking distance for transit passengers from the current 768 meters to less than 300 meters.

In addition, the shipping finance sector will continue to undergo development as it works toward hosting a cluster of fi nancial organizations and an active shipping fi nancial service system.

"We will level up the abilities of shipping fi nancing and capital settlements, encourage shipping insurance agencies to launch more innovative products and improve the shipping fi nancial service with more creative fi nancial derivatives," said Zhang Ye,the president of Shanghai Shipping Exchange.

yuran@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 09/16/2016 page7)