About Qingdao Port

The Port of Qingdao is a world-leading large-scale integrated port in Qingdao, Shandong Province. It is situated on the edge of Jiaozhou Bay, next to the Yellow Sea, and is both an important outlet for the Yellow River coastal region and an important trading port connecting neighbouring countries on the west coast of the Pacific Ocean. The port is right in the centre of the ports of Northeast Asia, and its main business includes loading and unloading, storage, transshipment and distribution of containers, crude oil, iron ore, coal, grain and other cargoes, as well as domestic and international passenger services.

Qingdao Port is mainly divided into five harbour areas: Huangdao Oil Harbour, Qianwan Harbour, Huojiakou Harbour, Weihai Harbour and Dagang. The oldest of them is the old port area of Jiaozhou Bay, an old wharf that has been in use since 1892 and is now more than 130 years old.

The harbour is blessed with natural conditions: the sea is deep enough, not frozen in winter, and the sediment does not pile up, making it perfectly suited to the docking needs of all kinds of giant freighters. There is a saying that no matter how big the ships are, Qingdao harbour has a big dock for them.

Specifically, there are container terminals dedicated to super freighters, special terminals capable of handling 400,000 tonnes of iron ore, tanker terminals handling 450,000 tonnes of crude oil, and 100,000 tonnes of coal terminals. Even more impressive, there is also the largest grain handling base in the entire Yellow River Basin, specialising in handling the import and export of bulk grain.

There is a particularly dangerous type of large ship in the world called an LNG ship, which specialises in transporting liquid natural gas. A lot of the natural gas we use for cooking at home and stir-frying in restaurants is transported by these ships. The reason why this kind of ship is dangerous is that the natural gas has to be frozen to more than 160 degrees below zero before it can be turned into liquid for transport, and a little bit of breakage or improper operation may cause an explosion, so it must be loaded and unloaded with a special dock.

In addition to these dangerous ships, Qingdao harbour also receives another kind of super freighter - ore freighters. For example, giant freighters carrying iron ore from all over the world enter China through Dongjiakou Ore Terminal in Qingdao Port.

Miraculously, Qingdao Port has specialised terminals for both LNG ships, which require special treatment at -160 degrees Celsius, and super freighters loaded with ore. For example, there is a special dock for 400,000 tonnes of iron ore ships, a dock for handling 450,000 tonnes of crude oil, and the largest grain loading and unloading base in the Yellow River Basin, so that even the world's largest container ships can be handled with ease.

In Qingdao Port Qianwan port area, hiding a ‘future dock’ - here from the container into the port to ship loading, the whole process by the robot work. Although many ports have automated equipment, but all the links like this are handed over to the intelligent system of the terminal, in the world is the top level.

The brightest star here is the ‘intelligent express vehicle’ (AGV). Do not look like they look like an iron box with wheels, the ability is not small:

Environmental protection: driven by oversized rechargeable batteries, a full charge can be used for more than ten years, the whole process does not emit black smoke.

Automatic charging: there is an automatic charging port on the roof of the car, when passing through the charging area, a renewable electricity, this alone will save several hundred million dollars!

Multiple sensors: the body is equipped with a lot of ‘eyes’ (sensors), can sense the surrounding environment in 360 degrees, more reliable than human drivers.

What's more, this high-tech dock was built from scratch in only 3.5 years, knowing that in foreign countries to build the same level of dock, at least 8 years!

The ability of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) to be unmanned and avoid collisions relies heavily on a system of magnetic pegs positioned on the quay floor. These magnetic spikes act as positioning markers, enabling the AGV to determine its position in real time. The position information is transmitted via sensors to a central control system, which sends operational instructions to the AGVs based on the real-time data, directing them to the designated location for container loading and unloading.

Magnetic pegs are embedded in a grid shape on the quay floor to form a high-precision navigation network. Each AGV is equipped with a magnetic sensing device that recognises the code of the magnetic pegs on the ground and achieves centimetre-level positioning accuracy through the triangulation method. The central control system monitors the running trajectory of all AGVs synchronously and uses intelligent algorithms to plan the optimal path, ensuring that hundreds of devices always maintain a safe distance when working together.

In the fully automated terminal, the AGVs work efficiently and orderly without human intervention. Thanks to the precise navigation system and anti-collision technology, hundreds of AGVs always keep a safe distance when working together, and no collision has ever occurred.

China's automated wharf construction has faced a core technology gap: when preparing for the construction of Qingdao Port automated wharf in 2013, the foreign technical team only allowed our personnel to observe from a distance in the moving vehicles and prohibited any technical details to be recorded. Facing the technology blockade, the Chinese engineer team took 3 years to complete the whole chain breakthrough from equipment development to system integration, and built the world's first 5G hydrogen-powered automated terminal, with a positioning accuracy of ±2cm, and a loading and unloading efficiency of 30% higher than that of traditional terminals.