Six automated double-cantilever rail-mounted gantry cranes have arrived at the Xiaoyangshan North Operation Area of Yangshan Deep-Water Port for installation and testing, further enhancing Shanghai's international shipping capabilities.

These domestically developed and manufactured cranes will form part of an automated terminal in West Zone 1, with about 840 meters of quay frontage. Once the terminal begins trial operations by the end of the year, it is expected to add around 1.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) to the port's handling capacity.

The project will strengthen Yangshan Port's role as a key maritime gateway linking the Yangtze River Economic Belt to international markets. In 2025, container traffic on the Yangtze River's main waterway reached 31.51 million TEUs, with nearly 4 million TEUs shipped from Yangtze River ports to Yangshan Port.

Yangshan Port. [Photo/Shanghai Observer]

Through innovative customs supervision models, eligible foreign trade goods moving along the Yangtze River can be declared, inspected, and cleared only once at Yangshan Port. This streamlines customs clearance and reduces logistics costs, encouraging more containerizable cargo to shift to water transport.

Yangshan Port handled more than 28.7 million TEUs in 2025, accounting for around half of Shanghai Port's total. It has ranked first worldwide in the Container Port Performance Index for several consecutive years. 

As Shanghai Port's third automated terminal, the Xiaoyangshan North Operation Area will have 6.1 kilometers of quay frontage, including 5.5 km for container terminals. It will comprise seven 70,000-metric-tonne berths and 15 20,000-tonne berths, with a designed annual handling capacity of 11.6 million TEUs.