Accompanying Dagang - The Story of "40 Million" for Four Generations

At around 9 o'clock in the morning, the sunshine slanted across the Meishan Port area of Zhoushan Port in Ningbo. A unmanned collection truck drove up to the dock along a predetermined route. Several kilometers away from the remote control center, operator Wu Feifei, born in the 1990s, lightly turned the handle and slowly lifted the container wearing a "red makeup", landing steadily on the "COSCO Shipping Sagittarius" ship.
On December 2, 2025, at this moment in history, the annual container throughput of Ningbo Zhoushan Port exceeded 40 million TEUs, joining the "40 million club" after Shanghai Port and Singapore Port.
Comrade Wang, a freight forwarding practitioner born in the 1970s, witnessed this historic moment at the dock and was filled with excitement. At this moment, at the headquarters of Zhongji Ningbo Group, "Post-50s" and "Foreign Trade Leader" Zhou Jule is staring at the smart screen, and the real-time jumping import and export figures have exceeded 5.59 billion US dollars; At Ningbo Ruyi Co., Ltd., "Post-40s" founder Chu Jiwang rubbed the company's 40th anniversary brochure, burning old photos of the "World Mover King" and the stormy journey of the Eastern Port together
A Port and Intelligent Manufacturing: Dancing in Waves
In the winter of 2005, the first electric transport vehicle of Ruyi Company was produced. In order to send out this "baby bump", they held the test report and waited for several days in Beilun Port area before finally packing it into a LCL container.
That year, the Ningbo Zhoushan Port Management Committee had just been established, and the integration of Ningbo and Zhoushan ports was taking a slow start. The path for enterprises to go global was not "smooth".
But this overseas trip was of great significance to Ruyi Company - at that time, the company was facing a heavy blow from the EU's anti-dumping measures, and the traditional manual hydraulic transport vehicle market was facing a loss.
If you limit 'manual', I'll make 'electric'. "Chu Jiwang gritted his teeth and led the team to focus on research and development, developing a brand new electric stacker and transporter. This time 'going out', Chu Jiwang specially brought samples back to Europe to 'kill' again. Sure enough, the market response was enthusiastic, and at the Hanover International Logistics Exhibition, we received over ten million US dollars in intention orders.
The larger the port and the more shipping routes, the more our products can go global, "said Chu Jiwang. Nowadays, Ruyi unmanned transport vehicles can independently load containers and code goods, and their products are exported to more than 130 countries and regions.
This is not the lone courage of a company, but a resonance of an era. When Ruyi receives a continuous stream of orders overseas, integrated ports are accelerating the weaving of global shipping routes, paving a wider sea route for "Made in China".
In 2008, the financial crisis hit, and the port's container throughput broke through 10 million TEUs against the trend. In 2015, it reached 20 million TEUs, and in 2021, it surpassed 30 million TEUs. Ningbo Zhoushan Port is accelerating towards the "tens of millions" level.
The city where Ruyi Company takes root is known as the "number one champion city" in China and the first city in the country to have over 100 individual champions. These low-key and pragmatic 'hidden champions' have firmly established themselves in the global industrial chain with their expertise and precision, relying on deep-water ports.
Customs data confirms this change: in the first 10 months of 2025, the export value of mechanical and electrical products at Ningbo Port was 913.42 billion yuan, accounting for 54% of the total export value; The export value of "new three types" such as new energy vehicles was 83.04 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.4%.
Big Port and Big Trade: The Greatest Common divisor
The level of the port determines the height of foreign trade, and the vitality of foreign trade feeds back the development of the port. "Zhou Jule, Chairman of Zhongji Ningbo Group, has been solving the two-way problem of ports and foreign trade for 20 years.
Go back to 2005. At that time, Zhongji had just completed its restructuring and was urgently seeking new channels, determined to shift from expanding exports to strengthening imports and exports.
But the port is still in a state of "separation of the two ports", and importing a ship of copper ore requires going through procedures back and forth between Ningbo Port and Zhoushan Port. The deep-water berths in the port are insufficient, the throughput capacity is limited, and ultra large cargo ships cannot dock. Copper ore and iron ore also need to be transported to other ports for transshipment. The trade volume of bulk commodities is large, and spreading it to every ton is a low profit trade, further increasing operating costs.
The turning point has quietly arrived. In 2015, Ningbo Zhoushan Port Group was established. For Zhou Jule, this is a good guarantee for accelerating the development of the industrial chain operation. When the cargo ship arrives at the port, it directly docks at Beilun Port and Meishan Port, greatly improving transportation efficiency and accelerating capital turnover
This year, Zhongji's revenue exceeded 33.1 billion yuan, three times that of ten years ago. The ore that was once 'bypassed' can be picked up from a closer port; The documents that used to be 'shuttling between two ports' are now' one document to the end '.
The port has transformed from a public service provider to a collaborator on the value chain.
This dance has entered a deeper level of 'co creation' in recent years. Three years ago, Zhongji and Ningbo Zhoushan Port Group jointly built Meishan Smart Hub Port. In the 438 acre front warehouse, the intelligent sorting line operates at high speed, supporting the new model of "cross-border e-commerce+industrial belt". Across the road, the Meishan International Cold Chain Center, known as the "Super Refrigerator," has risen from the ground, achieving seamless connection from the port to the cold storage.
Previously, it was us who sought out the port to 'borrow the road', but now it is the port that 'co builds the ecology' with us, "said Zhou Jule. Through multimodal transport systems such as sea rail intermodal transport, the comprehensive transportation efficiency of foreign trade enterprises' goods has been improved by 30%, and logistics costs have been reduced by more than 20%, giving 'Made in Ningbo' a price advantage in the international market. At the same time, innovations such as smart docks and the "one order system" for sea rail intermodal transportation have enabled Ningbo Port to rank among the top in terms of customs clearance efficiency in the country.
C channel and trust: the port that responds to calls
Among these 40 million TEUs, there is also our share, "said Wang, the chairman of Ningbo Lianyang Shipping, who has been working as a freight forwarder for 25 years, with a proud expression on his face at the dock.
In recent years, the multimodal transportation of Ningbo Zhoushan Port has developed rapidly, and the service scope of Lianyang has also expanded to the Yangtze River Delta and even the whole country, with the number of service enterprises increasing from about 1500 to nearly 3000.
A large chemical fiber enterprise in Jiaxing is a beneficiary. After establishing a new base in Xuzhou, the export logistics encountered a bottleneck - what if the cost of using container trucks to directly tow to major ports such as Shanghai and Ningbo is high, the shipping schedule from nearby ports is limited, the cabin space is restricted, and the travel time is long?
Comrade Wang found Zhoushan Port in Ningbo. After a detailed understanding of the situation, the port attempted to tailor a new inland river branch line from Xuzhou to Jiaxing for this enterprise, and then directly ship it from Zhapu Port in Jiaxing to Zhoushan Port in Ningbo, connecting the "Ren Du Two Channels" of the Haihe River intermodal transportation.
Since the trial operation of one ship in October last year, there have been 13 ships circulating on this inland river branch every day. As of November this year, the enterprise has shipped 9984 TEUs of foreign trade export goods through this logistics channel, totaling 124800 tons, driving the export value of the base to soar by 76.7%.
Trust is particularly precious in times of turbulence.
At the beginning of the year, a new energy company in Zhejiang won a large order for energy storage cabinets worth tens of millions of yuan in the United States. Production completed, but encountered the most complex journey: the weight of a single container of goods exceeds 40 tons, which is classified as dangerous goods and has no precedent for land transportation within the province; The delivery coincides with the "three-month window period" of US tariffs, and overdue delivery may face a sharp increase in costs; Amidst the wave of shipments, shipping costs on the US route have skyrocketed, making it difficult to find a single cabin.
Every link is a knot. Comrade Wang found the port and asked, "Can we do it
A cross departmental relay was immediately launched: provincial policy support, local transportation bureaus quickly issued overweight permits, and opened up the "dangerous goods land passage" from factories to ports; Ningbo Zhoushan Port, maritime affairs, and customs work together to ensure zero delay in customs declaration and clearance; Innovatively adopting the "vehicle and vessel direct installation" operation. In the end, 80 energy storage cabinets stepped on the timeline and sailed safely to the other side of the ocean.
Comrade Wang breathed a long sigh of relief: In the face of difficulties, the port responded well, and his heart felt at ease.
Over the past decade, Ningbo Zhoushan Port has turned its attention to sea rail intermodal transportation, using "sea rail public water" multimodal transportation to transform inland areas such as Shangrao in Jiangxi, Liangjiang New Area in Chongqing, and even Alashankou in Xinjiang from "waterless ports" to "coastal ports". Nowadays, the sea rail intermodal service network of Ningbo Zhoushan Port has radiated to 69 prefecture level cities in 16 provinces, 111 sea rail intermodal routes, and 40 inland "waterless ports" across the country.
A "golden logistics channel" that connects the whole country is now open.
D people and the future: from "big port" to "strong port"
The container can be lifted higher, and the take-off and landing curve can be even larger. "Wu Feifei, who finished lifting the 40 millionth TEU, returned to the familiar" battlefield ". As the bridge crane supervisor of Meidong Company, two booklets edited by him are being repeatedly reviewed by young drivers. The "Takeoff Remote Control Bridge Crane Operation Method" and "Intelligent Fly Remote Control Dragon Gate Crane Operation Method" have straightforward names, but they are "translations" that condense years of high-altitude experience into digital language.
Ten years ago in the spring, Meidong Port introduced two sets of remote bridge cranes as a pilot project for Ningbo Zhoushan Port Group's remote bridge cranes. At that time, remote control equipment was still a "rare commodity", and Wu Feifei and his companions became the "first batch of people to eat crabs". Through continuous trial and error, adjustment, and testing, they have developed this set of standards and specifications, allowing beginners to become masters in two months.
The change goes beyond that. Meishan Port Area has 36 remote control bridge cranes and 115 automated gantry cranes working day and night, forming the world's largest remote control cluster. The entire port area consists of 102 unmanned intelligent trucks, forming the largest intelligent truck fleet in the country.
They are dispatched by the 'smart brain' not far from the coastline. The Meishan Port Area, empowered by digital intelligence, achieved a container throughput of 11.19 million TEUs last year. The 24-hour data peak reached 45200 containers, which is equivalent to the height of 13 Mount Everest when stacked.
The accelerating digital transformation has put us in the best era. "Wu Feifei, who has been working for 14 years, not only witnessed the historical moment of 20 million TEUs, but also personally completed the lifting work of the 30 millionth and 40 millionth TEUs at Ningbo Zhoushan Port that year.
Looking out through his control room window, the first fully automated container port area in Ningbo Zhoushan Port - Fodu Port Area - is being constructed day and night.
40 million TEUs is not only a throughput node, but also a vivid footnote to a symbiotic and prosperous process, pointing to a smarter and more connected future.