On the morning of November 21, the front of the Shulanghu Ore Transshipment Terminal of Ningbo Zhoushan Port was crowded with "guests" and a jubilant atmosphere. With the sound of the whistle of the ore ship, under the witness of leaders and guests from provincial and municipal authorities, port units, Vale of Brazil, Zhejiang Port, and Ningbo Zhoushan Port, seven ship unloaders extended their "steel giant arms" to the cabins of the two world's largest 400,000-ton ore ships, the "Ore Tianjin" and the "Aconcagua", which were docked side by side at the dock, and unloaded the iron ore from South America to the rear yard continuously.

This is a milestone moment in the history of global shipping and port - for the first time, two of the world's largest 400,000-ton ore ships berthed at the same single-unit wharf for loading and unloading. This feat marks that Ningbo-Zhoushan Port has opened a new chapter in global port operations, becoming the world's first port to achieve the simultaneous berthing and unloading of two 400,000-ton world's largest ore ships, which not only demonstrates its outstanding strength in port construction, management and service capabilities, but also injects strong impetus into accelerating the construction of a world-class strong port, promoting the construction of a high-level open province and a strong transportation country, and helping the economic and trade cooperation between China and Pakistan.

It is extraordinary that two 400,000-ton ore ships can dock and unload at the same time, which requires all-round "hard-core" strength.

The "ore-port relationship" continues to develop and promotes the "two 400,000-ton ore ships docking and unloading at the same time". This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Brazil. Over the past half century, China and Brazil have promoted pragmatic cooperation in various fields and achieved leapfrog development. As early as 1973, the first ship of iron ore from Vale of Brazil arrived in China. Today, its iron ore products exported to China have accumulated more than 3 billion tons. Ningbo Zhoushan Port is one of Vale's important partners in China, and the cooperation between the two sides has a long history.

In particular, in 2016, Zhejiang Seaport Group, Ningbo Zhoushan Port Group and Brazil's Vale "joined hands" to build an "offshore mine" in Ningbo Zhoushan Port - a Northeast Asian ore transit and storage base. Since then, the world's "largest port" and the world's "largest mine" have continued to deepen cooperation, jointly explore multi-format operations such as iron ore transportation and processing, build an international iron ore logistics base, and carry out mixed ore projects. The amount of iron ore mixed has ranked first among domestic ports for five consecutive years, playing a vital role in stabilizing the global iron ore supply.

The iron ore unloaded by the "two 400,000-ton ore ships" this time all came from Vale of Brazil. This is the latest achievement of the exchanges and cooperation between China and Brazil, and it has made a positive contribution to promoting the construction of the "Belt and Road" and promoting the in-depth integration and development of ports and trade between the two countries.

The basic support of "berth hardware" makes "two 400,000-ton ore ships docking and unloading" a reality. Shulanghu Ore Transshipment Terminal is the only iron ore terminal in the world with two berths that can dock fully loaded 400,000-ton ore ships. The double unloading berth took 9 years to put into use, with an investment of over 5 billion yuan.

The Shulanghu Ore Transshipment Terminal was completed and put into trial production in January 2016. In September of that year, the first 400,000-ton bulk carrier "Yuanjianhai" berthed, ushering in the "giant ship era". At first, due to factors such as the length of the berth, the Shulanghu Ore Transshipment Terminal did not have the capacity to accommodate two such giant ore ships at the same time. At the end of 2021, Ningbo Zhoushan Port launched the construction of the extension project of the unloading berth of the Shulanghu Ore Transshipment Terminal, extending 110 meters to the north on the basis of the original berth No. 2. After completion, the total length of the berth will increase to 945 meters, which can meet the berthing needs of two 400,000-ton ore ships at the same time. After the extension project was approved for external use in March this year, the Shulanghu Ore Transshipment Terminal officially entered a new stage of "double 400,000 tons", helping Ningbo Zhoushan Port to build a billion-ton bulk cargo berth group.

https://www.cnss.com.cn/html/gkdt/20241122/355119.html