Katia Deng/ Shanghai Daily news

Shanghai is developing an evaluation system of 16 criteria to improve its competitiveness as one of world’s major ports.

Experts say the system follows the current international method for evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of a port, which include container throughput, flight density, container transshipment, as well as the supervision system of the shipping market, extended services, international influences and operational scale.

Shanghai handled 5.89 million cargo containers in the first quarter this year, an increase of 28.1 percent from the year before, ranking its throughput second in the world after Singapore for the first time, according to the Shanghai Port Administrative Bureau.

Singapore maintained its No. 1 position with throughput of 6.58 million 20-foot containers in the quarter, while the figure for Hong Kong rose 2.3 percent to 5.50 million containers.

However, Shanghai still has room for improvement in shipping management, broker, insurance and arbitration, compared with the world’s other top shipping centers such as London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Rotterdam.

“The Yangshan port operating since 2005 helps Shanghai qualify as an international shipping center, and now it is at a turning point. We will use the system to find out the disparities and make them up”, said Xu Peixing, director of local port administrative bureau.

Shanghai has to enhance its port operations if it is to better serve the Yangtze River Delta region. Now is the key period to make significant progress in building the port up as an international shipping center.