Shandong Port Group posted strong performance in the first quarter of this year, with cargo throughput exceeding 370 million tons, up 9 percent year-on-year, and container throughput hitting 7.93 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), up 11 percent, both record highs.

Shandong Port Group, consolidated in August 2019, has integrated many of the province's major ports, including Qingdao Port, Yantai Port, Rizhao Port, and the Bohai Bay Port Group, in order to maximize port resources and eliminate regional competition.

Qingdao Port, a branch of Shandong Port Group in Qingdao, Shandong province [Photo by Zhang Jingang/dzrb.dzng.com]

A container ship docks at Qingdao Port in Shandong province for unloading. [Photo by Zhang Jingang/dzrb.dzng.com]

Qingdao Port, a subsidiary of Shandong Port Group, is the world's sixth-largest comprehensive port. [Photo by Zhang Jingang/dzrb.dzng.com]

Containers are unloaded from a ship at Qingdao Port. [Photo by Zhang Jingang/dzrb.dzng.com]

Self-driving trucks load containers at Qingdao Port, Shandong province. [Photo by Zhang Jingang/dzrb.dzng.com]

An aerial view shows a fully automated container terminal at Qingdao Port of Shandong Port Group, the first of its kind in Asia. [Photo by Zhang Jingang/dzrb.dzng.com]