YANTIAN District has temporarily leased about 40,000 square meters of land to Yantian International Container Terminals as a storage yard, which was put into use Wednesday, sznews.com reported yesterday.

The use of the temporary land is expected to effectively alleviate the shortage of storage yard in the Yantian port area.

As an important international port in South China, Yantian Port is responsible for one-third of Guangdong’s foreign trade exports. The Yantian port area is also the last port of call for international liners in South China.

At present, Yantian International Container Terminals has planned to put about 7,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit) of empty containers into the temporary land so as to free up more yard space in the port area to accommodate laden containers.

China’s National Day holiday is one of the peak seasons for exports in South China, which puts much strain on the international logistics industry. As the COVID-19 pandemic situation continues to wreak havoc, insufficient shipping spaces, chaotic schedules and delays have become the norm.

According to Yantian International Container Terminals, it has continued to improve efficiency by putting in more resources and optimizing operation process. Its throughput rebounded to 1.25 million TEUs in August and port handling capacity would increase further in September.

On Sept. 9, the terminals applied to the Yantian District Government for renting the idle land in the northwest of the intersection of Shenyan Road and the overpass in the free trade zone as a temporary storage yard to alleviate the pressure of stacking containers.

The district held a special meeting Sept. 17 and agreed to lease about 40,000 square meters of land to the terminals as a temporary storage yard.

(Zhang Yu)