By Xin Dingding (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-03-11 07:23

SHANGHAI: Homegrown technology was used for the first time Monday for real-time monitoring of container shipment in the country's commercial hub.

Containers to be monitored through homegrown technology are being loaded on a ship in Shanghai March 10, 2008. The e-tags attached on the containers will send warning signals if they are opened without authorization during the journey. If the pilot program is successful, it will help better fight terrorism, stowaways and contamination of products. [China Daily]

If the two- to three-month pilot program, supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Communications, is successful, it will help better fight terrorism, stowaways and food contamination in containers.

Initially, 10,000 containers will be sealed with a special e-tag, which can be re-used on the shipping line between Shanghai and Savannah in the US state of Georgia, Shanghai International Port (Group) Co vice-president Bao Qifan.

The e-tag that uses radio frequency identification technology will show a container's status in the logistics chain, and send warnings if it is opened without authorization, he said.

The threat against terrorism, stowaways and food contamination has made real-time container monitoring throughout the logistics chain an immediate necessity, Bao said.

US and European firms have been studying the technology, too, but "China is the first to mobilize resources such as ports, shipping companies, cargo owners and the Customs and put the technology into use on a commercial shipping line".

The country's container throughput reached a record 100 million TEU (20-foot equivalent unit) last year. And Shanghai handled 26.15 million TEUs, second only to Singapore across the world.

If an e-tag shows a container has not been opened on the way, it will help a cargo owner save the time he has to spend for Customs and quarantine checks at ports.