Zhoushan in East China's Zhejiang province receives its first 400,000-ton ore carrier of the Lunar New Year on Feb 14. [Photo/zhoushan.cn]

Zhoushan in East China's Zhejiang province received its first 400,000-metric-ton ore carrier of the Lunar New Year on Feb 14, local media reported.

The ore carrier berthed at the Shulanghu ore transfer terminal, the largest of its kind in China.

Since it started operating in 2016, the Shulanghu ore transfer terminal has received more than 5,500 ships carrying nearly 229 million tons of iron ore.

The "single window" system adopted by the Zhoushan Maritime Safety Administration has reduced customs clearance time for ships from 16 hours to less than two hours by introducing paperless processes and doing away with more than 70 approval procedures.

The administration also established an online application system to deal with common maritime affairs-related procedures at the Shulanghu terminal.

In addition, during the COVID-19 outbreak in China last year, the administration helped the terminal resume production as soon as possible.

In 2020, iron ore throughput at the Shulanghu terminal saw a year-on-year increase of 13.3 percent to 66.21 million tons.