East China's Shanghai Port will likely register a cargo turnover of 443 million tons this year, ready to outperform Singapore to become the top cargo port in the world.

The forecast was made recently by the Shanghai harbor administration on the basis of statistics about Shanghai Port's cargo turnover for the past 10 months, which amounted to 363 million tons.

According to a local newspaper, Shanghai Port accumulated an annual cargo turnover of 379 million tons last year, second only to Singapore in the world. In the first half of this year, Singapore's cargo turnover increased by 11 percent over the year-earlier level to 211 million tons. Experts said if the growth rate is kept, the cargo turnover of Singapore would stand at 420 million tons or so at the end of this year.

The Shanghai harbor administration noted in the first 10 months of this year, Shanghai Port reported a container turnover of 14.89million TEUs (twenty-feet equivalent unit), exceeding the all-time high level of 14.55 million TEUs for the whole of last year. The figure for the whole of this year is expected to reach 18 million TEUs, ranking third around the world.

In November, the first-phase project of the Yangshan deep-water harbor will be completed and start operation. The project boasts five container berths and a designed capacity of accomodating 2.2 million TEUs of containers a year, the harbor administration added.

(Xinhua News Agency November 9, 2005)