Hutchison Ports YANTIAN hosted a ceremony on Thursday, September 28, for the inaugural green marine shipment for ZTE Corporation.
The cargo, transported via rail from Changsha, Hunan province, has now been loaded onto Hapag-Lloyd’s 24,000-TEU dual-fuel vessel Berlin Express en route to the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
Berlin Express, like its sister vessel Manila Express , is an LNG dual-fuel container vessel, that has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by 15%-25% during voyages and minimize sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, smoke, and waste oil water emissions.
Berlin Express, which is on its maiden voyage, was launched in June this year. The vessel is part of a series of twelve dual-fuel LNG 23,500+ TEU vessels Hapag-Lloyd ordered in late 2020 and mid-2021. The total investment value of the twelve vessels stands at around $2 billion. The 400-meter-long and 61-meter-wide newbuilds are among the largest ships in the world.
YANTIAN, as ZTE’s primary export hub, has frequent deliveries to Europe, which serves as a crucial high-end market for ZTE’s green shipping initiative.
The port has implemented a range of eco-conscious measures to reduce carbon emissions, including the establishment of rail-sea intermodal routes, widespread shore power infrastructure, adoption of liquefied natural gas (LNG) refueling, and the conversion of gantry cranes from diesel to electric power.
From January to July this year, YANTIAN has achieved a year-on-year throughput growth of 14% for its intermodal rail transportation services. It now ranks second in the country in port container throughput according to the China Ports Association. In 2022, YANTIAN handled 230,000 TEU by rail intermodal transportation, mitigating carbon emissions by over 12,000 tons.