Aerial view of Meishan Terminal (Photo provided by Rong Junjie)

On July 15, the Zhejiang Provincial Government officially approved the opening of Berths 6 to 10 at Ningbo-Zhoushan Port’s Meishan Container Terminal for international operations. This milestone elevates the port’s total operational container berths to over 40, marking a significant leap in its global connectivity and reinforcing its pivotal role in serving national strategies and international trade.

As the core of Meishan Terminal’s Phase II expansion, Berths 6-10 rank among China’s highest-grade newly built container berths. Since construction began in December 2015, the project has adopted a “build-while-operate” approach. The berths passed final inspections between November 2020 and December 2023, and received provisional international operation approvals from April 2020 to August 2024, enabling early handling of foreign trade. With this official approval, the 2,150-meter-long berth complex—featuring two 200,000-ton and three 150,000-ton deep-water berths—now fully integrates into global shipping networks, capable of accommodating the world’s largest container vessels.

Even prior to formal approval, these berths demonstrated exceptional productivity. By June 2025, they had serviced over 4,200 international vessels and handled more than 20 million TEUs. In 2024 alone, they contributed over 55% of Meishan Terminal’s record-breaking 10-million-TEU throughput.

A cornerstone of Meishan’s ambition to become a globally leading automated terminal, Berths 6-10 feature cutting-edge automation. Their remotely operated gantry cranes and a hybrid workflow combining autonomous smart trucks with manual vehicles exemplify the port’s “single-chain operation” model. Notably, Berths 9-10 and four adjacent yards are piloting fully unmanned smart truck operations across 200+ traditional terminal scenarios and eight large-vessel workflows, achieving near-human efficiency—a replicable “Meishan Solution” for global port automation.

Moving forward, Ningbo-Zhoushan Port will intensify efforts to build a world-class hub, leveraging higher-level openness and premium services to advance Zhejiang’s high-capacity opening strategy and foster a dual-circulation development paradigm. (Reporters: Yan Jianzhong; Correspondents: Rong Junjie, Yang Jiangqi, Wang Shuting)