Song Dexing, Director of the Water Transport Department of the Ministry of Transport, said in Beijing today that China's water transport industry has made remarkable achievements in 30 years. Today China has the fourth largest maritime fleet in the world, and five ports have entered the world's top 10 in terms of throughputs.
Song also said that water transportation infrastructure has developed steadily. As of the end of 2007, the country had a total of 36,000 berths and 123,000 km of inland waterway mileage. Water transportation has also grown rapidly, with mainland port throughput and container throughput both ranking first in the world for five consecutive years. In 2007, waterborne cargo transportation realized a capacity of 2.8 billion tons and container throughputs reached 6.4 billion tons, breaking 100 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit) for the first time. In 2007, China's overall shipping capacity was 118 million DWTs (dead weight tonnage), with a maritime fleet ranking fourth in the world. The water transportation services have been greatly improved, with five ports listed among the top ten in the world for largest throughput. Shanghai has become the largest port in the world. The China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company (COSCO) and China Shipping Container Lines Company Limited (CSCL) both list among the world's top ten liner companies.
By People's Daily Online
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