300,000-tonne crude oil wharf put into trial operation in Guangxi

NANNING -- The supertanker "NEW WEALTH" berthed at the 300,000-tonne crude oil wharf at Qinzhou Port in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Friday morning, marking the wharf was put into trial operation.

This is the first oil tanker docked at the wharf after the construction of the wharf was completed.

With an investment of about 2.32 billion yuan (362.6 million U.S. dollars), the 300,000-tonne crude oil wharf in the Beibu Gulf Port is a landmark project in the construction of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, a trade and logistics passage jointly built by western Chinese provincial regions and Singapore, according to Hu Huaping, deputy director of the regional transportation department.

The new wharf has a 300,000-tonne crude oil berth with an annual throughput capacity of 9.86 million tonnes at the single side of the berth.

After the project is put into operation, it can greatly reduce the transportation cost of crude oil loading and unloading in Beibu Gulf Port, thereby improving the handling capacity of bulk liquid cargo and enhancing the core competitiveness of Beibu Gulf Port, which is of great significance for better serving the development of petrochemical industry in Guangxi and building an international hub in Beibu Gulf Port.

Guangxi's Beibu Gulf Port serves as an important transit point in the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor. Beibu Gulf Port currently has more than 270 productive berths. Over 50 shipping routes link the gulf with more than 300 ports around the world.

Beibu Gulf Port saw its cargo throughput rise 10.29 percent year on year to over 200 million tonnes in the first nine months of 2021. Over 4.18 million twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) containers were handled at the port during the same period, up 19.11 percent year on year.