Container throughput hits 20 million TEUs in east China port

Container throughput hit 20 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEU) for the first time at Ningbo-Zhoushan Port in east China's Zhejiang Province in 2015, local authorities announced Thursday.

It ranked as the fifth port globally to exceed annual container throughput of 20 million TEUs, following the ports of Shanghai, Singapore, Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

Integration of Ningbo Port and Zhoushan Port started in 2006, and the throughput of both ports has been counted together since then. They officially merged into one port in September 2015.

"It has 236 container routes, including 119 ocean-going shipping lines, and is connected with more than 600 other ports in over 100 countries across the world," said Chu Bin, vice president of Ningbo Port Co. Ltd.

Ningbo-Zhoushan port has discharged cargo of 118 major vessels from January to November 2015, triple the number compared to the same period last year, said Chu.

The Ningbo-Zhoushan port lies in coastal southeast China at the mouth of Hangzhou Bay, where the Qiantang River flows into the sea. Endi