Yangshan Deep-Water Port

Yangshan solved Shanghai's main limitation, a shallow river port, and helped Shanghai become the world's busiest container port from 2010. Building on offshore islands provided the water depth that the biggest ships need, while the Donghai Bridge carries trucks to the mainland. Later phases added more berths, including a highly automated terminal that opened in 2017. Yangshan now handles a large share of Shanghai's container exports, so many U.S. importers' boxes from eastern China load there. Its scale also explains why port closures or COVID lockdowns in Shanghai quickly affect U.S. ocean capacity, transit times and freight rates.

• Twenty-Foot Equivalent UnitTEUContainer capacity unit of one 20-foot box
• Full Container LoadFCLOne shipper's goods in a whole container
• Time in TransitBusiness days from first scan to delivery

• China's Reform and Opening-Up1978 · China turns toward markets and foreign trade
• China Joins the WTO2001 · China becomes the 143rd member of the WTO
• ECT Delta Terminal1993 · Rotterdam opens the first automated container terminal

1. Yangshan Port (Wikipedia) en.wikipedia.org
2. Developments at Shanghai Yangshan deep water port (China Briefing) china-briefing.com