Along with the development of China's economy, both domestic trade and foreign trade are growing significantly. And freight transport with container becomes increasingly popular because it is not only convenient and safe but also fast. Over 90% of foreign trade logistics volume depends on ports in China and container transport acts as the major form. In the first half of 2006, the container throughput of China’s major ports reached 42.1211 million TEUs, increased by 22.4% over the same period of 2005. Of these, the container throughput of major coastal ports was 39.2837 million TEUs, up by 21.4% over 2005 and that of major inland ports was 2.8374 million TEUs, up by 39.3% over 2005.
China's port container trade will keep growing; as a result, China's major coastal pivotal ports and inland ports are speeding up the investment and construction of container ports based on their own plans. Moreover, the estimated investment in ports will exceed RMB 10 billion respectively in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Dalian and Lianyungang.
In spite of some achievements in China container port industry, there still exist some problems to worry about :
Firstly is how to improve the whole river-sea-land logistics system. At present, some serious problems in inland container port still hamper it to provide coastal pivotal port with strong support. Additionally, China's sea-railway combined transportation also lags far behind the developed countries where the sea-rail combined transportation volume accounts for 20-30% of the total port container throughput, while in China, the share is simply less than 1%.
Secondly, it is still doubtable whether or not the individual optimization can bring the collective optimization in port construction. Majority of shipping companies will berth at major container pivotal ports in the future, while other ports will have to turn into lateral ports or feeding ports. In order to succeed in the diverse port market, all the regions in China are eager to construct large-scale container ports so as to become a pivotal port, which stimulates a heat in port construction. In north China, Qingdao, Tianjin and Dalian fight with each other; in Yangtze Delta region, Shanghai and Ningbo have a fierce competition; in south China, Shenzhen and Guangzhou are the strongest rivals.
