SHANGHAI - Yangshan Deep-water Port's throughput volume will grow by at least 40 percent, on the back of Shanghai's ambition to become an international shipping hub, said a senior executive from the port's development company.

Yangshan Port, part of the Port of Shanghai, is situated at the estuary of Hangzhou Bay and is the nearest deep-water port to Shanghai. Since starting operations in late 2005, it has consistently expanded to cope with the increasing volume of goods. Over the past five years, the annual growth rate of its container throughput volume reached 32.5 percent.

More than 10 billion yuan ($1.54 billion) will be spent in building new deep-water berths in the port, said Wang Xuan, general manager of Yangshan Tongsheng Port Construction Co Ltd, the company in charge of the port's design and construction.

After completion, the handling capacity will grow at least 40 percent and facilitate Shanghai's efforts to build an international shipping hub, he said.

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According to Wang, the fourth phase is expected to be finished in 2015, which will add 4 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent unit, the standard for container ships) to the port's current designed capacity of 9.3 million TEUs. Throughput at Yangshan Port is planned to grow to 12.3 million TEUs in 2011, up 21.78 percent from 10.1 million TEUs in 2010, said Wang. Yangshan's target is to have a throughput volume of 15 million TEUs by 2020, by which time the city intends to have built an international shipping hub.

The Port of Shanghai surpassed Singapore to become the world's busiest and largest container port in 2010 with a total container throughput of 29 million TEUs.

"Yangshan's container throughput accounts for a third of the throughput of the Port of Shanghai," added Wang.

Chen Xuyuan, president of Shanghai International Port (Group) Co Ltd, said in April that the container throughput of Shanghai Port will exceed 30 million TEUs in 2011.

"During the first quarter, Shanghai Port handled more than 7.4 million TEUs, up 12 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, as many as 1,425 international lines operated in the port of Shanghai in April, handling more than 90,000 TEUs of containers daily," Chen said.

"Yangshan Port has changed Shanghai's history of having no deep-water port, and it laid a solid foundation for Shanghai to develop into a global shipping center," Shao Xiaoping, director of the Yangshan Customs, told reporters on Thursday.

"Equipped with the latest technology and facilities, customs procedures have been greatly simplified. Customs clearance time has shortened to one or two hours from a full working day, and the cost of logistics has also been reduced by 30 percent," said Shao.

After more than five years of development, Yangshan Port currently operates lines to more than 300 ports internationally. "The competition with international ports will increase Shanghai's global influence before it matures into a real giant," added Shao.