Recently, on the sea surface of Yangshan Port Area of Shanghai Port, a giant can be seen from time to time - the world's largest 20000 cubic meters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker is ready to try, and is ready to provide LNG fuel filling service for the container liner of Daffy France berthing in Yangshan Port Area in the coming March.



This will be the "first order" in China for the bonded LNG bunkering business of international navigation ships, which also means that Shanghai Port will become the third port with LNG bunkering service capacity in the world after Rotterdam Port and Singapore Port in the Netherlands. Xu Longping, chairman of Shanghai Shanggang Energy Service Co., Ltd., told reporters that the new business will bring new performance growth points to Shanghai Port. More importantly, it will help improve the service functions of Shanghai Port, attract dual-fuel international ships to berth, improve the comprehensive competitiveness of Shanghai International Shipping Center, and promote the sustainable development of the shipping industry.



Constantly innovate to enable the development of Shanghai Port



For this "first order", Yangshan Port has been preparing silently for a year. Relevant personnel have carried out a lot of work, including verification of safety, formulation of procedures, and innovation in system and management. With the support of the Shanghai Municipal Government and various competent units, supported by the institutional advantages of the new port-linked area of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, and supported by the hardware foundation of the Yangshan Port LNG Base and the Shanghai Port Terminal, the Shanghai Port has seen the dawn of victory.



People familiar with the development history of Shanghai Port have a special feeling for Yangshan Port Area. It is not only because Shanghai Port is thriving from here to the dark blue and the sea, but also because Yangshan Port Area has always been the vanguard of Shanghai Port's development and innovation. There have emerged one case after another to empower the whole port with innovative achievements.



In the past two years, the epidemic has brought many challenges to the global port and shipping industry, but Shanghai Port has repeatedly broken the record of throughput and production efficiency under the condition of zero growth of shoreline resources, and has become the "reassurance" of the international logistics supply chain. In 2021, the container throughput of Shanghai Port increased by 8.1% year-on-year, breaking through 47 million TEUs at one stroke. Yangshan Port Area, as the highland of Shanghai Port's capacity release, has performed particularly well. Its annual throughput exceeded 22.8 million TEUs, with a year-on-year increase of 12.8%.



Yang Yanbin, deputy general manager of the production business department of Shanghai Port Group, said frankly that this "miracle" is the result of the continuous upgrading of hardware and software in Yangshan Port Area, and the continuous internal potential tapping through institutional, business and technological innovation.



In terms of hardware, in the past year, 5 bridge cranes and 12 rail cranes were added to the Yangshan Phase IV automated terminal, and the container throughput exceeded 5.7 million TEUs; At the same time, the construction of empty container yard and heavy container yard in Yangshan Port Area has been fully started. The empty container yard originates from the project of "Shanghai Port Northeast Asia Empty Container Dispatching Center" launched by Shanghai Port in advance and innovation, with a view to cooperating with shipping companies to effectively use the surplus empty containers and promote the healthy development of the international shipping industry after the shipping industry returns to normal.



In terms of software, Shanghai Port Group takes Yangshan Port Area as the experimental field, and continues to promote the construction of port informatization and intelligence. Relying on a set of digital twinning system officially launched at the end of 2020, the Yangshan Phase IV automated terminal will be replicated in virtual space. Through this technology, in the past year, the intelligent control system of the terminal has continuously tested and optimized the algorithm without affecting the operation of the real port to further improve the operation efficiency. At the same time, relying on the "smart port production smart digital platform" created by the Shanghai Port Group under the epidemic situation, the big data of each terminal can be connected, and the ship plan in Yangshan Port Area is upgraded from 48 hours to 72 hours, effectively improving the predictability of the port ship operation arrangement and the utilization rate of the shoreline and mechanical resources. In addition, after the data was cleared, the "shared yard" operation mode of adjacent terminals was innovatively launched between Shengdong and Guandong terminals in Yangshan Port Area, which further improved the utilization rate of resources such as yards and trucks



In addition to the above measures, innovative projects such as 5G smart heavy truck and Shanghai Port Group's ultra-remote smart command and control center are also blooming and bearing fruit on the land of Yangshan Port, which is expected to further empower the future development of Shanghai Port.



Based on the present, but also in advance for the future layout



In the new year, the global shipping industry is still full of challenges, but the reporter learned that Shanghai Port Group has set a higher goal to make a greater breakthrough on the basis of 47033000 TEUs last year. Yangshan Port Area is still the main contributor to the growth of container volume.



What is the strength of Yangshan Port to challenge higher goals? It is better to make a plan for the future in advance, based on the present and looking forward to the future.



Last year, the digital twinning system applied in Yangshan Phase IV automated terminal has been gradually popularized and applied in other terminals. This year, with the help of VR, digital twins and other new technologies and new means, Shanghai Port Group plans to continue to promote the construction of "smart digital platform for smart port production" and form version 2.0. In version 1.0, Shanghai Port Group can understand the operation of various terminals in Shanghai Port in real time through a smart screen. The future goal is to obtain more detailed information, including the operation of each equipment on the terminal, the navigation of ships on the route, the operation of the collection and distribution system connecting the port area, etc., so as to achieve a higher level and higher level of real-time dynamic control of the terminal production.



At the same time, the "Shanghai Port Northeast Asia Empty Container Dispatching Center" located in Yangshan Port Area is also expected to be launched in the first half of this year. Shanghai Port Group will improve the efficiency of empty container circulation in Shanghai, the Yangtze River Delta, the Yangtze River, and ports in Northeast Asia through a new digital operation mode, and improve the resource allocation capacity and level of Shanghai Port to the global empty container.



Based on this long-term layout, at present, Shanghai Port Group is also actively seeking partners to promote the construction of Waigaoqiao sub-center of empty container transfer center, copy the model of Yangshan Port Area to Waigaoqiao Port Area, and plan to find sites in the hinterland of the Yangtze River Delta and along the Yangtze River to build more sub-centers.