The port of Shanghai continued to be the world’s busiest container terminal in 2013, with throughput expanding 3.3 percent to a record 33.6 million TEUs (twenty-foot-equivalent units), reports Xinhua, China’s official press agency.
The city first became the world’s biggest container port in 2010 when it surpassed Singapore.
The Shanghai Urban Construction and Communications Commission, the local transport authority, said the city will accelerate the shipping sector’s development this year on the back of the new pilot free trade zone, a testing ground for government reforms.
For its part, Singapore has yet to reveal its full-year 2013 figures, but Shanghai reportedly already has at least an excess of around 1 million TEUs over the city-state.
Earlier, Singapore announced plans to shift its whole port operations to Tuas district in a move designed to double container capacity.
In August last year, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced a plan to transfer the port from 2027 to a new site in Tuas in the western part of the state to open up prime land in Tanjong Pagar for a new waterfront city.
The new port was needed because the ports at Tanjong Pagar, Keppel, Brani, and Pasir Panjang were already reaching their capacity, he explained.
