(Yicai Global) Dec. 9 -- Southern China’s largest port, the Port of Shenzhen, has begun a CNY14.5 billion (USD2.3 billion) expansion project in its main cargo terminal to increase its handling capacity.

Yantian International Container Terminal's eastern zone project will raise the deep water port's annual throughput capacity by three million twenty-foot equivalent units, Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported today.

The Port of Shenzhen, which has several terminals, was the world's fourth-largest port in container throughput last year and China's third-biggest one. Yantian Port handles half of its cargo and more than one-third of Guangdong province’s foreign trade items, as well as one-quarter of China’s trade of goods with the US, according to public data.

The first stage of the project should include three new 200,000-ton automated container berths, involving a coastline of 1,470 meters. Moreover, Yantian will receive a 2.1-kilometer sea-cross tunnel to link up its eastern and central areas.

A 50:50 joint venture between Yantian Port Group and Hong Kong-based industrial giant Hutchison Whampoa will oversee the construction of the first stage and the tunnel.

Yantian Port kicked off operations in 1994. The facility was jointly built by Yantian Port Group and Hutchison Whampoa. In 2020, the port's container throughput climbed by 2 percent to 13.3 million TEUs amid the Covid-19 pandemic, according to official data.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi