China's Beibu Gulf Port logs over 6 mln TEUs of cargo throughput

NANNING, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- Beibu Gulf Port in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region saw its cargo throughput rise 18.8 percent year on year to more than 6 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers in 2021.

It is the first time for the port to reach such a scale of cargo throughput after five consecutive years of double-digit growth. The port's leading source and destination of goods is the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) members, said the Beibu Gulf Port Group.

Starting from Jan. 1, 2022, the RCEP agreement, the world's largest free trade agreement, entered into force. After the agreement takes effect, more than 90 percent of merchandise trade among members that have approved the agreement will eventually be subject to zero tariffs.

To embrace the opportunities brought by the new agreement, the port added more than 20 million tonnes of capacity in terms of transporting cargo and set up 12 new shipping routes in 2021.

Beibu Gulf Port currently has more than 270 productive berths. Over 50 shipping routes link the port with more than 300 ports around the world.

Guangxi's Beibu Gulf Port serves as an important transit point in the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, a trade and logistics passage jointly built by western Chinese provincial regions and Singapore.