Yantai Port in the coastal city of Yantai, East China's Shandong province, enjoys an excellent geographical location. [Photo/WeChat account: yt_port]

Yantai Port, a subsidiary of Shandong Port Group (SPG), is located at the easternmost area of the Shandong Peninsula, and on the shores of the Yellow Sea. It enjoys an excellent geographical location, and is an important passageway between south and north in China's coastal area and the pitch point of the New Eurasian Continental Bridge constructed under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The port was first put into use in 1861, and has grown from a primitive natural port into a national main pivot in waterway traffic and an important coastal open port in China. It is currently one of the 25 main hub ports in the coastal area of China, and one of the 15 key ports in coastal cites under the BRI.

It consists of four port areas – Zhifu, Xigang, Longkou and Penglai – and has an annual throughput capacity of over 300 million metric tons. Yantai Port now has 126 berths at different levels, including 83 deepwater berths with a designed annual through capacity of 10,000 tons.

In 2021, all its key indicators reached new highs. According to official data, the port handled 367 million tons of cargo in 2021, up 8.8 percent year-on-year, and its container throughput grew 10.6 percent year-on-year to 3.65 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).

The port's primary business has been steadily increasing. According to government statistics, the port last year processed 115 million tons of bauxite, placing it first among China's coastal ports. Yantai Port has also experimented with new marketing models for importing bulk resources, and handled 42 million tons of crude oil last year.

SPG has achieved outstanding results in the coordinated development of integration efforts and effective tactics by Yantai Port, one of its major components.

At the same time, Yantai Port has made great breakthroughs in the construction of a multimodal transport channel, and a number of river-sea shipping routes have been developed, aiming to build a new channel for water transportation around the Bohai Sea. Efforts have also been made to expand cooperation with ports in Bohai Bay, including Shandong Bohai Bay Port Group, in order to jointly develop the western part of the Bohai Economic Rim and build a new service model to ensure the stable operation of the Yantai-Qingdao container branch line.

The port will also promote the development of a two-way logistics channel between China and Africa. Official data show that the annual delivery volume of the Chinese-African liner at Yantai Port last year exceeded one million tons for the first time ever, up 90.4 percent year-on-year, making the port the largest trade port serving China-Africa trade and an important part of the Belt and Road Initiative.

In recent years, fresh business forms have been developed, and the port's service functions and supply chain systems have been strengthened. Yantai Port contributed more than 33 billion yuan ($4.87 billion) to the city's international trade, up 25 percent year-on-year, according to government data.