Yiwu (Suxi) International Hub Port opens on June 27, 2025. [Photo/Tide News]

In the early hours of Jan 4, Yiwu (Suxi) International Hub Port in Yiwu — a county-level city in Jinhua, Zhejiang province — was bustling with activity.

Guided by an intelligent control center, driverless container trucks efficiently shuttled between the yard and the railway lines, coordinating with automated gantry cranes for precise container handling.

Opened on June 27, this port features a smart operations system combining automated gantry cranes, intelligent transport vehicles, and full-process digital management.

This setup has delivered significant improvements, allowing four daily train pairs and processing an average of 800 TEUs every day. As of Jan 4, the port has handled over 1,066 trains and more than 90,000 TEUs.

"The intelligent control center acts as the port's 'super brain'," said Xu Ting, head of the center at Zhejiang Seaport Yiwu Hub Port Co. It ensures precise 24/7 monitoring, reducing train loading time from over five hours to under two hours and cutting overall customs clearance time by 40 percent.

Enterprises are benefiting from these advances, enjoying "proximity, speed, and cost-efficiency", according to Wu Shengjun, chairman of Yiwu Yorda International Freight Forwarder. Shipment times have dropped from several days to "same-day order, next-day dispatch".

Efficiency is also being driven by advanced regulatory models. Customs officers now use AI-enabled glasses to supervise goods, which provide real-time translation of foreign labels and use image recognition to match product names, materials, and other key details, greatly enhancing inspection efficiency.

This modern hub in the "World's Supermarket" is paving the way for efficient inland logistics with its smart, integrated services.