Ningbo Zhoushan Port has become the world's third port following Shanghai Port and Port of Singapore to have a container throughput of more than 30 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).

This feat demonstrates the increasingly important role that China plays in the global trading landscape, according to He Huanlang, a professor at Shanghai University of International Business and Economics.

The robust growth of the container business at Ningbo Zhoushan Port is largely due to China's entry into the World Trade Organization two decades ago.

In 2001, the port's container throughput had exceeded 1 million TEUs, ranking 49th worldwide, and the number has been growing ever since.

The implementation of port integration and the Yangtze River Delta integration strategies has also played a part in container growth at the port. The Yangtze River Delta refers to the region encompassing the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui as well as Shanghai municipality.

Zhejiang is the third largest province in terms of foreign trade in China, with its imports and exports accounting for more than 10 percent of the country's total. More than half of the foreign trade goods from the province are handled at Ningbo Zhoushan Port.

In the past 20 years, Zhejiang's exports have increased by nearly 16 times.

The port's development has also benefited from the recovery of global trade amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year, it opened 27 new shipping routes, bringing its total number of routes to 287, among which 117 are to countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Tong Mengda, the former chief economist of the Ningbo Zhoushan Port Group, pointed out that the 30 million TEU achievement marks a "watershed moment" in the port's development.

He suggested that the port adhere to the win-win cooperation concept and better serve the foreign trade enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta and inland areas in the nation.