On the morning of December 24, a group of cargo vessels departed from the Shaying River following the sounding of a signal, marking the debut of Phase I of the Central Operation Area at Zhoukou Port's Central Port Area. This marks Henan's inland waterway cargo transport entering the 1-million-TEU era.
In the future, Henan will persist in advancing the integrated construction of waterways and ports along the Shaying, Huaihe, Tangbai, and Tuokuai River Basins, further extend the inland waterway shipping network, cultivate port-adjacent industrial clusters, and expedite the establishment of a modern inland waterway transportation system with provincial coverage, national connectivity, and global radiating capacity - a system that supports regional economic integration and serves the national "Dual Circulation" development pattern.
As learned, the project is planned to construct 22 2,000-ton-class berths with an annual comprehensive handling capacity of 1.76 million TEUs, to be implemented in two phases. Phase I has been completed, featuring 13 berths with a total length of 1,089 meters and covering an area of 2,061 mu (equivalent to 137.4 hectares, as 1 mu equals around 666.7 square meters). This makes it the container-specific inland waterway port in Henan Province with the largest number of berths and the widest coverage to date, thereby significantly consolidating its leading position and reinforcing its hub function.
As Henan's first inland container terminal with an annual handling capacity exceeding 1 million TEUs, the port boasts a designed annual throughput of 1.075 million TEUs in Phase I. Furthermore, leveraging the distinct advantages of inland waterway transport- low cost and large shipping capacity- it is poised to become a core driving engine for boosting regional economic development and reducing overall social logistics costs. (Chinese source: dahe.cn Reporter: Liu Ruichao, Zhu Chuanpeng and Liu Gaoya Picture: Li Siyu Translator: Yang Jiaxin Proofreader: Jiao Dan and Zhao Hanqing)
