Lin Hongpin (left) uses a walkie-talkie to communicate with the ship he is about to pilot. [Photo by Pu Xiaoxu/Xinhua]

On Sept 28, the Yangpu-South Pacific-Australia container route was officially opened at Yangpu Xiaochantan Terminal, marking the opening of the first intercontinental route of Hainan Free Trade Port. As of Sept 28, Yangpu has opened 32 container liner routes, including 13 foreign trade routes and 19 domestic routes. The Yangpu Xiaochantan Terminal has completed a total of 497,000 TEUs of containers from January to August with a year-on-year increase of 66 percent. Among them, the volume of foreign trade containers was 118,000 TEUs, a year-on-year increase of 432 percent, and the growth rate was among the top ports in the country, adding impetus to the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port.

As an important fulcrum of the logistics industry, Xiaochantan Terminal's capacity improvement project is expected to be completed by Dec 31, and the design capacity of the terminal will be increased from 650,000 TEU to 1.8 million TEU. Currently, Yangpu has identified its major positioning, the new western land-sea channel, the advanced manufacturing base, the bulk commodity trading base, and the international trade innovation demonstration zone.