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Shanghai aims to surpass Singapore as the world's busiest container port next year, as China's growing exports of toys, clothes and other goods boosts shipping demand.
"Shanghai port is likely to overtake Singapore next year," said Wang Qingwei, board secretary of Shanghai International Port (Group) Co, the port's operator.
China's busiest port has almost doubled its container traffic over the past three years, outpacing growth in Singapore, under a government drive to build the city into the nation's shipping hub. Volume may rise 15 per cent to 25 million boxes this year, said Wang.
Shanghai boosted its container traffic by 26 per cent in the first five months of the year to 10.3 million boxes. The port surpassed Hong Kong as the world's second-busiest container harbour in the first quarter.
Shanghai's US$16 billion Yangshan deep-water port will help expand the city's container handling capacity to 30 million boxes by 2010. The first phase of the port opened in December 2005.
Singapore boosted its container traffic by 14 per cent to 8.8 million boxes in the first four months of the year.
Last year, Shanghai boosted its container volume by 20 per cent to 21.7 million TEUs, while Singapore's traffic rose 6.9 per cent to 24.8 million TEUs
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