By Xiao Zhang

QINGDAO:  Every  day,  about 19 ships connect Qingdao with more  than  450  ports  in  130 countries  and  regions  across the world.

The frantic arrival and depar- ture of shipload after shipload has  helped  the  115-year-old port in East China`s Shandong Province develop rapidly.

"In  the  first  half  of  the year,  Qingdao  Port  handled 130  million  tons  of  cargos and 4.5 million TEUs (Twen- ty-foot  Equivalent  Units)," chairman  and  president  of Qingdao  Port  Group  Chang Dechuan said.

As China`s third largest port in terms of container through- put, Qingdao Port also operates Asia`s biggest crude oil termi- nal and the world`s top iron ore terminal.

The city aims to become the largest shipping hub in North- east Asia.

Qingdao Port became one of the  top  10  world  commercial ports in   2006, after its handling capacity shot up to  24 million tons,   0 percent more than the previous year.

Container  throughput  ex- ceeded  7.7  million  TEUs,  up 2 .1 percent.

At present, the port has three harbors with 78 berths, includ- ing 46 10,000-plus ton berths.

It can accommodate 300,000- plus ton oil vessels as well con- tainer ships capable of carrying 10,000 TEUs.
The   port   has   met   many benchmarks like the "Zhenchao Efficiency",  which  means  suc- cessfully  loading  and  unload- ing any size container ship in 10 hours.

Aware  that  inter-port  co- operation  would  be  a  major economic  boost,  Qingdao  set up  two  container  companies separately with Weihai Port and Rizhao Port, both of Shandong Province.

Last   year,   Qingdao   Port accounted  for  47  per  cent  of Shandong`s 470 million tons of throughput.

The city`s container through- put accounted for 81 percent of the total 9.5 million TEUs.

In   2006, Qingdao Port ranked 11  in  the  world  in  container throughput.

It is now a base port on the main  routes  of  international container ship transportation.

Qingdao is now connected to 121 container-shipping lines in- cluding scheduled lines opened by the world`s top   20 container companies.

To date, seven Fortune 500 companies  have  established subsidiaries    in    Qingdao Port,  including  Mitsubishi from  Japan  and  ABB  from Sweden.

Sixty percent of Shandong`s exportation  is  conducted  in Qingdao Port.

Thanks   to   the   boom   in Qingdao Port, the neighboring Qingdao Economic and Techno- logical Development Zone is en- joying breakneck development with more than 90 Fortune 500 subsidiaries.