Yantian Port 盐田港

Yantian Port. Photo by Lin Jianping

Yantian Port lies on Shenzhen’s eastern coast in Dapeng Bay, facing the South China Sea a short sail from Hong Kong. Operated by Hutchison Ports, it is one of the world’s largest single-site container terminals and among the most efficient deep-water ports anywhere: a natural deep-water channel allows the largest container vessels afloat to enter and leave without tidal restriction.

盐田港位于深圳东部海岸的大鹏湾，南向南海，距香港航程颇近，由和记港口运营，是全球最大的单体集装箱码头之一，也是全球最高效的深水港之一：天然深水航道使全球最大的集装箱船可不候潮进出。

The numbers convey the scale. In 2025, Yantian handled 16.109 million TEUs — an all-time high, 7.1% up on the year — and set another record in the first quarter of 2026, at about 4.04 million TEUs. Yantian alone accounts for roughly one-third of Guangdong’s foreign trade and more than a quarter of China’s exports to the U.S. It is a pillar of Shenzhen Port — a system of eastern and western districts along some 45 kilometers of coastline that together handled 35 million TEUs in 2025 — and its deep-water terminals serve international shipping routes linking Asia, Europe, the Americas and Oceania, nearly 100 services in all.

数字勾勒规模。2025年盐田港吞吐量1610.9万标箱——创历史新高，同比增长7.1%；2026年一季度再创纪录，约404万标箱。仅盐田港一港即占广东外贸约三分之一、占中国对美出口逾四分之一，是深圳港的支柱——深圳港由东、西港区沿约45公里岸线构成，2025年合计吞吐3500万标箱——其深水泊位服务于连接亚洲、欧洲、美洲与大洋洲的国际航线，航线近百条。

Yantian is a textbook “port near factory.” Sitting at the edge of the Pearl River Delta manufacturing belt, it lets products made in Shenzhen and across the Greater Bay Area move from production line to vessel with minimal inland haulage. Its hinterland now reaches deep into China: as of June 2026 the port operated 35 inland port points, 37 rail-sea intermodal routes, 15 “Port Alliances” and 17 feeder routes, and it has the only on-dock railway in Shenzhen, running directly into the terminal. Scheduled “Chengdu-Shenzhen-Hong Kong” and “Chongqing-Shenzhen-Hong Kong” block trains form a standing corridor from Sichuan and Chongqing to the sea.

盐田港是典型的"港厂合一"。地处珠三角制造业带边缘，使深圳及大湾区制造的产品从生产线到船舶的内陆拖运极短。其腹地已深入中国内陆：截至2026年6月，港口运营35个内陆港点、37条海铁联运线路、15个"港口联盟"、17条支线，并拥有深圳唯一一条直达码头的港前铁路。成都—深圳—香港、重庆—深圳—香港定期班列构成从川渝通向海上的常态化走廊。

Cooperation with Hong Kong runs decades deep: feeder services between Yantian and Kwai Tsing have operated for more than 32 years — six sailings a day — with laden volumes setting records in 2024 and again in 2025, the two ports functioning together as the gateway linking the inland to global markets.

与香港合作深达数十年：盐田与葵青的支线服务运营逾32年——每日六班——2024、2025年重箱量连创新高，两港共同构成连接中国内陆与全球市场的门户。

Efficiency is increasingly matched by environmental performance. Shore power covers 100% of Yantian’s berths, terminal equipment is being electrified, and between 2015 and 2025 annual throughput rose while carbon emissions per container fell by 32% — growth without added carbon. In June 2026, at the AFLAS Awards — often called the Oscars of the logistics industry — Yantian was named “Best Global Container Terminal” for the first time, after three earlier wins in the Asia category, and took “Best Sustainable Container Terminal” for the fifth time in eight years: the only terminal in the world to have done so.

效率日益由环保表现匹配。岸电覆盖盐田港全部泊位，码头设备持续电动化，2015至2025年吞吐量上升而单箱碳排放下降32%——增长而不增碳。2026年6月，在被誉为物流业奥斯卡的 AFLAS 频奖上，盐田港首度荣获"全球最佳集装箱码头"，此前三度获亚洲类别奖，并八年内第五次获"最佳可持续集装箱码头"——全球唯一获此成就的码头。