The 12-year, Rmb15bn dredging project of the Yangtze River mouth is due to be completed in the middle of this month. The project covers a 92.2km-long, 300-metre-wide shipping channel starting at Waigaoqiao, in Shanghai, and finishing where the Yangtze enters the East China Sea.

The programme began in 1998 and has increased the depth of the estuary shipping channel from 7 meters to 12.5 meters.

As a result of the dredging programme, the channel at the estuary will be able to accommodate, at any time, container vessels each of 2,000 to 4,000 TEU capacity and 50,000-dwt cargo ships. At high tide, it will be capable of accommodating 6,000 to 11,000 TEU container ships and 100,000-dwt vessels.