The scene at the ports this year is different from last year when China’s foreign trade slumped as the global economic recession dragged the country’ s economic growth down to a decade low of 6.1%.
In the first quarter this year, Qingdao Port recorded year-on-year 8.1% growth in throughput in the first quarter with 84.79 million tons. Container throughput was up 8.9% to 2.72 million TEUs.
CargoNews Asia reported that growth brought delight to Qingdao Qianwan Container Terminal, whose three docks are for foreign trade by container – but the brisk business conditions have brought their own challenges.
"In the first quarter of last year, foreign trade was quite slack. Most of the throughput was empty containers from imports," company official Guan Qian said.