Skip to content 
In the early morning of May 26, under the maintenance and protection of Nanjing Maritime Safety Bureau, the Singaporean ship “Ionic” slowly sailed out of the Xinshengwei port area of Nanjing Port and crossed the ocean to Brazil. This is Nanjing’s first export ship with a draft of 11.6 meters, marking that the draft standard of ships leaving Nanjing Port has also been raised from 11.36 meters to 11.6 meters. Nanjing has opened the era of “big ships and deep water”, and has taken another solid step on the road of accelerating the construction of a regional shipping and logistics center.
Departing from Nanjing
The 11.6-meter-deep draft ship rushes to the sea
This is the first time that a freighter with a draft of 11.6 meters has been exported from the port of Nanjing. On January 15 this year, the grain ship “Alpha Discovery”, which departed from Brazil, docked at Nanjing Port, taking the lead in setting a new record for the largest draft of a ship entering the port since the opening of the port with a draft depth of 11.6 meters. One in and one out, Nanjing Port has completed another sublimation of a deep-water port.
Yang Zhaohui, deputy director of the command center of Nanjing Maritime Safety Bureau, introduced that since Nanjing started the draft improvement work of ships entering and leaving Nanjing Port, Nanjing Maritime Safety Bureau has actively carried out the actual ship test work of 11.6-meter draft ships entering and leaving Nanjing Port. Since January 15, five 11.6-meter draft ships have been guaranteed to berth safely at Nanjing Port, and 50,000-ton ships have become the norm to berth at Nanjing Port.
In order to effectively ensure the safe exit of “Ionic”, before sailing, Nanjing Maritime Safety Bureau organized law enforcement personnel to carry out safety inspections on the key equipment of the ship to ensure the seaworthiness of the ship. Coordinate the senior pilots of Nanjing Pilot Station to implement pilotage on site, and give the right to choose the route, and organize the pilots to carefully study the navigation safety guarantee plan.
After the sailing, the Nanjing Maritime Safety Bureau also dispatched special personnel to accompany the ship to coordinate the maritime departments along the lower reaches of the Yangtze River to implement the whole process of tracking and maintenance, so as to ensure the timely and effective transportation organization. In addition, the tugboat of Nanjing Port Group was dispatched to follow the ship to Jiangyin throughout the whole process, and the tugboat was added to assist navigation when passing through the complex downstream section.
Aim for 11.8 meters
Nanjing accelerates its “deep” competitiveness
Depth is the competitiveness of the waterway. In 2018, the 12.5-meter deep-water channel below Nanjing on the Yangtze River was fully completed, and the water depth of the Nanjing channel increased from 10.5 meters to 12.5 meters. So far, the navigable ship has increased from 30,000 tons to 50,000 tons, and the 100,000-ton sea ship can arrive with reduced load, and Nanjing Port has changed from a “river port” to a “seaport”.
