A work photo of Liangang Innovation Team [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Chinese solutions for the development of smart ports are continuing to make progress by leaps and bounds, according to experts in the sector.

They point out that it took the Liangang Innovation Team -- from Qingdao Port, operated by Shandong Port Group (or SPG) -- only 15 months to complete the design of a new smart terminal, which might have taken at least three years for similar terminals overseas and it took the team three and a half years to build the automated terminal, which normally requires eight to 10 years.

Officials said the port – in Qingdao city in East China's Shandong province -- uses only one quay crane to handle the number of containers that usually need two quay cranes in automated terminals overseas. It also allocates only nine remote monitoring personnel, who perform the workload of 60 workers at a conventional terminal.

This is the so-called 'Chinese equation' in automated port development, created by this group of engineers. From being hampered by foreign ports' bottlenecks to creating its own innovative team -- and from being asked by foreign experts to build an automated terminal with the shortest construction cycle, highest operational efficiency and fastest container volume growth -- the team has ushered Chinese ports into a new era of smart container handling.

Officials said Qingdao Port's fully automated container system keeps advancing through such a pioneering spirit. On May 11, 2017, the terminal's Phase I started operating, with the first vessel moving 26.1 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) per hour using a single crane, the highest ever rate recorded for an automated terminal's debut vessel.

On Nov 28, 2019, Phase II went into operation, involving six examples of cutting-edge research -- including hydrogen-powered automated rail-mounted cranes and 5G+ automation technologies. On Nov 13, 2020, the world's first automated air-track collection and distribution system was built for the third phase.

Officials said that today's Qingdao Port has a fully automated container terminal operated by SPG. It offers a Chinese solution that features low costs, a short construction cycle, high-efficiency, full intelligence, more safety and zero emissions, in a development that has been recognized as being at the forefront of the world. Its technologies have already been applied to ports including the Qingdao Qianwan port area, Abu Dhabi Port in UAE and Vado Port in Italy.

"Automated terminals only account for one fifth of Qingdao Port's total and more human-labor dominated terminals need to be transformed and upgraded, which is a pretty tough task," said Zhang Liangang, leader of the team.

Zhang said the team would continue to pursue independent innovation and make a contribution to SPG's construction of world-class seaports.