On Dec 5, the first phase berth of the Qinzhou automated container terminal measured 63,800 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) for November, an increase of 191.3 percent compared with October. The total broke a number of operational records and reached 76.6 percent of the designed production capacity by accounting for both commercial live-ship operations and those of automated terminal equipment.

Since the opening of the first berth, the Qinzhou Automated Container Terminal has made strong efforts to achieve steady growth in core indicators such as ship-time efficiency, bridge crane efficiency, berth efficiency and average berth utilization.

According to conventional automated container terminal development progress, the automated system equipment needs up to two or three years for commissioning and breaking-in to be formally put into stable operation. But Qinzhou automated container terminal innovation opened the "real ship + commissioning" parallel new mode, that is, performing commercial real ship operations and automated terminal equipment commissioning at the same time, measuring operational efficiency and equipment system operational capacity and taking just five months to enhance the terminal production capacity to nearly 80 percent of the design capacity.

During ship operations, Qinzhou Port Customs put in new instruments for non-contact temperature measurement, compressing the time spent on quarantine temperature measurement for foreign trade container ships. The Qinzhou Port Entry-Exit Border Inspection Station canceled the berthing approval process, simplifying the approval of foreign trade container vessels' operation. The Qinzhou Port Marine Department simplified the berthing procedures and approval materials for 150,000-metric-ton vessels with reduced loads. In addition, the Qinzhou Pilotage Station of Beibu Gulf Port has developed a pilotage program to escort large ships to and from berthing.

The Qinzhou Port area of the China (Guangxi) Pilot Free Trade Zone. [Photo/WeChat account: gh_df8bc987e060]