Cape Brazilia enters Taicang port, on July 3. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Now that the Yangtze River channel has been extended to the Port of Taicang, it has created a 56-km "high speed waterway" that was able to accommodate an ultra large ship, the Cape Brazilia, on July 3, which was carrying nearly 100,000 tons of ore and needed a 12-m draft, the deepest the port and the Yangtze river have ever dealt with.

Some changes in the Taicang Maritime Safety Administration's regulations were what made it possible to handle a ship of that size and Taicang has become the No.1 timber, container, and iron ore port along the Yangtze. Its Wugang Terminal is a large ore dock with a loading and unloading capacity of 11 million tons, and a throughput capacity of 30 million tons annually and it provides ore transfer services to steel plants along the upper reaches of the river.

Taicang Port now accommodates more and larger ships since its draft regulations have been relaxed. The Cape Brazilia began berthing alongside the Wugang terminal, at 6 pm. The time it took to berth and leave was determined by the tide.

Tang Renkang, the ship's pilot, said that the ship is bigger than the World Cup football field, at 289 m in length and 45 m in width, and a displacement that is much larger than that of China's first aircraft carrier Liaoning.

The Cypurs ship carried 179,000 tons of ore from Mauritius, in east Africa, unloaded 80,000 tons in Beilun Port, Zhejiang province, and carried the remaining 99,000 tons to Taicang, where Sun Pingyan, the manager of operations at Wugang, said that this is an increase over the 11.8-m draft of 2013. So, the relaxed regulations allow a ship to carry about 2,500 to 3,000 tons more of iron ore and save the owner about 50,000 yuan ($8000).

Taicang's ability to handle such large ships is gradually increasing, which will boost the development of the port.