Five electric container tractors were put into service at Xiamen Port in East China's Fujian province on Dec 10, marking a significant step forward for the Chinese city's development of a new-generation eco-friendly port, local media reported.

According to Xiamen Port Transportation Co, each electric tractor will save Xiamen Port 17 tons of coals and reduce emissions by 47.4 tons of carbon dioxide every year.

Roughly 300 electric tractors are expected to serve Xiamen Port in the near future, saving 5,300 tons of coal and reducing emissions by 13,000 tons of carbon dioxide each year.

Moreover, each electric tractor will save 20 percent in labor and maintenance costs and advance the development of driverless ports in Xiamen.

Chen Zhiping, president of Xiamen Port Holding Group, said that the company will begin developing Xiamen Port into a new-generation eco-friendly port by making use of clean and low-carbon energy and more intelligent services with the help of cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, and 5G technology.

Xiamen Port will also improve its capacity to prevent and control pollution by treating waste water, reusing reclaimed water, and classifying waste, noted Chen.

In late 2018, the Xiamen Hairun container terminal was named the 2018 Asia-Pacific Green Port by the international organization APEC Port Service Network (APSN).

The shore power supply systems are adopted at Hairun terminal to help berthed container ships keep delivering cargos after shutting down their oil-fed generators, the gantry cranes at the container yard are driven by electricity instead of oil and intelligent lock entrances are used to reduce the passing time of trailers from 90 seconds to 26s.

Additionally, all-electric patrol cars and forklifts, sewage treatment stations and air quality monitoring stations were also put into operation at Hairun terminal.

Xiamen Port in East China's Fujian province begins using its first five electric container tractors on Dec 10. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]