SHANGHAI posted strong growth in the number of ships arriving at and departing from the port in the first two months, both cargo and passenger, especially in the port area of Yangshan and Waigaoqiao, Xinhua reports.

Yangshan port area customs office's statistics show, as of February 28, there were 1,517 ships arriving at and leaving the port this year, up 25.2 per cent year on year.

Waigaoqiao's figures show that it handled 3,680 ships in these two months, up 25.7 per cent.

Shanghai Customs said as the port speeds up the development towards international shipping hub, the ships it receives has been growing rapidly. Yangshan has been added to port rotation of a number of new lines connecting North America, Persian Gulf, Mediterranean and Southeast Asia since this year.

There were 20 new ships start their maiden voyage from Yangshan in February alone, a large proportion of them were post-panamax ships of over 100,000 tonnes.