To cope with the growing import and export trade volume in South China and the increasing shipping demand during the peak season, YICT will soon bring a new deep-water berth into operation under its Expansion Project. This will be the fourth berth out of a total of six under the Expansion Project, bringing the total number of berths at YICT to 13. On 19 and 27 September 2007, the berth successfully passed phased inspections by the relevant governmental departments.
YICT's Expansion Project is aiming to build a total of six deep-water berths. Located at the far end of the project zone, the latest berth has a quay length of 397 metres and a water depth alongside of 16 metres. It is thus capable of accommodating 10,000-plus-TEU mega container vessels.
Construction of the Expansion Project – which is costing over RMB 10 billion – is already well under way. A number of sub-projects are already over 50 percent complete. In March this year, the third berth commenced operations immediately after successfully passing inspections. Another berth is scheduled to for completion by next year. The whole project will be completed by 2010.
To ensure its quality of service, YICT has put great efforts into building new berths, expanding container yards, purchasing more equipment and increasing its workforce. Within the first eight months of this year, YICT has deployed 12 new dual-hoist tandem-lift quay cranes, and there are now 59 quay cranes and 196 rubber-tyred gantry cranes in operation around the port. All will be ready by the time the last berth is operational.