(Yicai Global) Dec. 11 -- The pilot operation for the 'phase IV' of Shanghai Yangshan Terminal, an automatic container port, started officially yesterday. The Phase IV project involves construction of seven deep-water container berths. After three years of construction, this mega project with seven large-size deep-water berths will become the world's largest automatic container terminal, the Paper reported.

The project put into pilot operation includes seven container berths in total, with a total frontage of 2,350 meters. Its designed annual carrying capacity is 4 million standard containers, which is to be extended to 6.3 million in the future. It will help increase the total annual handling capacity of the Port of Shanghai to over 40 million standard containers.

With the complete automation, there will no longer be staff in the phase IV project. Aside from the bridge cranes run by remote operation free from manual driving, the manually driven container trucks will also be replaced by the automatic guided vehicles (AGV), the report added.

After the four phases of the project are completed, the annual container handling capacity of the Port of Shanghai will reach 40 million standard containers, which will lay a firm basis for the port's role as the world's largest container terminal for many years to come, and enhance Shanghai's status as an international shipping center. The annual handling capacity of 40 million standard containers makes up one tenth of the world's total and is higher than the capacity of nine major ports in the US combined.