SHANGHAI - SHANGHAI said it overtook Singapore for the first
time in 2010 to become the world's busiest container port, as the
global economic recovery boosted cargo traffic through China's
business centre.
Shanghai's port handled 29.05 million 20-foot equivalent units,
or TEUs, in 2010 - 500,000 TEUs more than Singapore, the Shanghai
government said in a statement.
Officials credited the economic recovery and Shanghai's
six-month long World Expo with boosting the container and cargo
traffic travelling through the port, the statement said.
Shanghai's cargo throughput rose to about 650 million tonnes in
2010, remaining the world's largest, up from 590 million tonnes in
2009, the statement said.
Shanghai will continue, and possibly expand, an export-tax
refund pilot project and press on with expanding infrastructure,
the statement said.
The city has charged ahead through the financial crisis with
work to more than double its port capacity. China's cabinet has
declared it wants Shanghai to move up the value chain and become a
full-service world-class shipping centre by 2020, with shipping
financing, reinsurance and arbitration services. -- AFP
