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With the launch of the Tianjin Free Trade Zone approaching, Tianjin Port has made every effort to support the area's future operation.
Titles such as "Asia's Largest International Cruise Home Port", "Asia's Largest Container Terminal", "The Most Technological Ore Terminal" and "World's Largest Coke Terminal" have proven the world class standard of Tianjin Port. With the implementation of the 300,000-ton level deep water channel, the capability of Tianjin Port has been further improved.
Around 60 years ago, Tianjin Port was a small port with an annual cargo handling capacity of only 740,000 tons. But now, it has become the world's fourth and North China's largest port with an annual cargo handling capacity of more than 540 million tons. A total of 14 million standard containers have been handled at Tianjin Port last year.
The control center witnesses Tianjin Port's busy days. In the monitoring system, each triangle stands for a vessel entering or exiting the port. Triangles occupy the entire screen.
Kong Weidong, deputy director of the container business department of Tianjin Port Group, said, "Accepting cargo from as many as 120 container vessel channels and up to 500 flights each month, Tianjin Port communicates with more than 180 countries and regions in the world."
With the help of the world class supporting facilities of Tianjin Port, any vessels, even the 300,000-ton level vessels and the largest and most advanced container vessels, are able to enter and exit the port freely, added Kong.
With the official implementation of the multiple channels on January 1 this year, Tianjin Port had been expanded from a double channel to four channels. Thanks to the multiple channels, the through efficiency of Tianjin Port has improved 27 percent, according to Ren Yulei, deputy director of the control center of Tianjin Port Group.
Tianjin Port is developing into a strong modern economic function area. Apart from the traditional loading and unloading, the port provides a series of businesses including international distribution, harbor construction, facility manufacturing and harbor comprehensive supporting services.
"Recent years witnessed the continuous efforts of Tianjin Port's diversified development, its rapid transition and upgrade from transformation junction to global resources allocation center, its structure optimization, as well as its improving risk handling capability," said Sun Bin, deputy director of the corporate development department of Tianjin Port Group.
Located in the northeastern part of Tianjin Port, the Dongjiang Free Trade Port Zone is a reclaimed peninsula port and one of the three areas of the Tianjin Free Trade Zone.
Numerous programs, such as the largest free trade port zone in the country, the largest international commodity exhibition center in North China, and five-star luxury hotels, are operated in the 30 square kilometer area.
In this area, a variety of industries, for example international transfers, international distribution, international purchase, global trade, shipping financing, shipping trade, shipping lease and offshore finance, are developing rapidly.
The number of newly-registered enterprises in Dongjiang reached more than 1,500 last year, which is almost the sum total of the ones in the past five years.
With a total area of 42 square kilometers, the second island of the Dongjiang Free Trade Port Zone located in the east is under planning. As the functional position of the port becomes clearer, the State Council has approved Tianjin Port to launch a new round of expansion and opening up last year.
The total area of open water has been expanded from 470 square kilometers to 1,590 square kilometers. The total length of the frontage has been improved from 78.9 kilometers to 148 kilometers.
Six modernized loading bridges at the Five Continents International Container Terminal in Tianjin Port were working on a container vessel belonging to CMA-CGM from France. With a total length of more than 360 meters and a width of 45 meters, the vessel carried around 10,000 containers traveling along the Maritime Silk Road.
Located at the intersection of the Beijing-Tianjin urban belt and the Bohai Sea Economic Circle, Tianjin Port is an important initial point connecting the new Eurasia Land Bridge economic corridor and the China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor. Furthermore, it is the only port involved in three land bridges in the country.
Developing into the strategic pivot of the Belt and Road Initiative (Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road) has become the new goal of Tianjin Port.
Containers are loaded on the trains traveling to the hinterland area of Eurasia at the storage yards of Tianjin Port Logistics Company.
"Taking the imported goods from Japan to Kazakhstan as an example, the sea-railway combined transportation shortens the transporting period from 70 days to 15 days," according to the director of Tianjin Binhai Taida Logistic Company.
As the most convenient marine outfall of both North China and northwestern areas, Tianjin Port has set 25 dry ports and five regional marketing centers in 11 inland provinces. According to statistics, up to 70 percent of cargo handling capacity is from outside Tianjin.
Tianjin Port faces a variety of opportunities and enjoys numerous preferential policies such as the construction of Belt and Road Initiative; the implementation integrated development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei; the opening-up of the Binhai New Area; the launch of the Tianjin Free Trade Zone; and the establishment of the national innovative demonstration area.
Zhang Lili, president of Tianjin Port Group, said, "Tianjin Port aims to continuously contribute to the central government's positioning of Tianjin city through accelerating transition, optimizing industrial structure, promoting reform and innovation, and upgrading the port and enterprises."
