BEING the first stop on the east end of the Eurasian Land Bridge, Lianyungang port lifted 5.48 million TEU in 2013, 9.3 per cent more than in the previous year. Its throughput tonnage increased 8.8 per cent to 202 million tonnes.

In 2013, Lianyungang's port investment amounted to CNY3.55 billion (US$587 million. The port is now able to berth the world's largest bulk carrier. Its capacity has been substantially raised. Last year, there was a ship of 200,000 tonnes or over called at Lianyungang every five days on average.

The port also expanded it sea-rail intermodal service to the hinterland region. The service to Xinjiang border checkpoint Khorgas has been upgraded to two runs per day. In 2013, the port handled 106,000 TEU of cross-boundary sea-rail-intermodal containers, 39 per cent more than in 2012.

Eight shipping lanes were newly launched or increased in their frequency last year at Lianyungang. The port also commenced the first river container shipping service to boost its box throughput, according to Xinhua's report.