Two container piers at the Port of Taipei will begin operating this week after the formal opening on Monday, reported Taiwan's Central News Agency
The new facility will upgrade the Port in the Taipei suburb of Danshui as an international seaport, the second largest in the country behind Kaohsiung Harbour.
The two container piers are among seven that were scheduled to be built by 2014 under an 11-year build-operate-transfer (BOT) project developed in 2003 by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) in cooperation with three local maritime companies.
By 2014, when all seven container piers at the Taipei Port are completed and become operational, the container handling capacity of the Port of Taipei is expected to reach four million TEU annually, MOTC officials said.
The Port of Taipei, a man-made seaport built on reclaimed land, lies south of the Danshui River estuary in northern Taiwan and faces west toward the Taiwan Strait. It is spread over 3,102 hectares, almost five times the size of the Keelung Harbour, which is 34 nautical miles east of Danshui.
The Port of Taipei was formerly designed as an auxiliary port of Keelung Harbour, which handled only coastal shipping operations because of its limited facilities and capacity.
But it is now positioned to become a major seaport in northern Taiwan to handle ocean-going shipping operations and direct cross-Taiwan Strait shipping services that were officially launched December 15.
Under the BOT development project, Evergreen Maritime, Yang Ming Marine Transport and Wan Hai Lines will jointly invest NT$20.32 billion (US$580 million) to build the seven-pier container port over an 11-year period. The other five container piers in the project will be constructed one per year over the next five years, according to the MOTC.
Most containers bound for overseas are usually trucked from northern or central Taiwan to Kaohsiung Harbour in the south then loaded onto ships. Containers from abroad, particularly from western countries, are shipped to Kaohsiung Harbour and trucked around the country.
The development of the Taipei Port container piers will help save exporters and importers road transportation time and costs, as containers for international shipping can now be handled at the Taipei port, MOTC officials said.
The new facility will upgrade the Port in the Taipei suburb of Danshui as an international seaport, the second largest in the country behind Kaohsiung Harbour.
The two container piers are among seven that were scheduled to be built by 2014 under an 11-year build-operate-transfer (BOT) project developed in 2003 by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) in cooperation with three local maritime companies.
By 2014, when all seven container piers at the Taipei Port are completed and become operational, the container handling capacity of the Port of Taipei is expected to reach four million TEU annually, MOTC officials said.
The Port of Taipei, a man-made seaport built on reclaimed land, lies south of the Danshui River estuary in northern Taiwan and faces west toward the Taiwan Strait. It is spread over 3,102 hectares, almost five times the size of the Keelung Harbour, which is 34 nautical miles east of Danshui.
The Port of Taipei was formerly designed as an auxiliary port of Keelung Harbour, which handled only coastal shipping operations because of its limited facilities and capacity.
But it is now positioned to become a major seaport in northern Taiwan to handle ocean-going shipping operations and direct cross-Taiwan Strait shipping services that were officially launched December 15.
Under the BOT development project, Evergreen Maritime, Yang Ming Marine Transport and Wan Hai Lines will jointly invest NT$20.32 billion (US$580 million) to build the seven-pier container port over an 11-year period. The other five container piers in the project will be constructed one per year over the next five years, according to the MOTC.
Most containers bound for overseas are usually trucked from northern or central Taiwan to Kaohsiung Harbour in the south then loaded onto ships. Containers from abroad, particularly from western countries, are shipped to Kaohsiung Harbour and trucked around the country.
The development of the Taipei Port container piers will help save exporters and importers road transportation time and costs, as containers for international shipping can now be handled at the Taipei port, MOTC officials said.