On May 11th, a COSCO France container ship, with container load of 13,386 TEU, was berthing into the 106thberthage, loading and unloading goods, marking the initial operation of the world’s most advanced, Asia’s first totally automated terminal in Qingdao Port. Since then, Qingdao Port has become the world’s most advanced port with highest degree of automation, as well as fastest loading and unloading efficiency.

    In the operational process of the two automated berths, 9 remote operators at the back production control center undertook the work that traditionally took over 60 people to do. Operating efficiency improved by 30%, and 85% labor force was saved, creating a new automated container operation era.

    The terminal is located among 5—10 berths in Phase Four of Qingdao Qianwan Container Terminal, with coastline of 2,088 meters long, 784 meters deep, water depth of 20 meters, and annual transit capacity of 5.2 million TEU. It could accommodate the world’s largest container ship of more than 20,000 TEU. The first two berths were put into operation.

    Compared with traditional terminals, Qingdao’s automated container terminal adopted advanced technology such as Internet of Things, communication navigation, fuzzy control, information network, large data cloud computing, and security prevention, and integrated with systems like terminal operation, equipment control, gate control, electronic data exchange, and site booking inquiries. Its mechanical equipment achieved unmanned driving, unmanned loading and unloading, unmanned transporting and storing, and unmanned sending and receiving. Lately, the project was recognized to win the “outstanding achievement award of fully automated container terminal construction” by the Navis Company in America, which is the world’s leading container terminal operational system supplier.(Zhou Jianliang)

    (Qingdao Port fully automated terminal in operation. By Fu Xuejun)