[1] The port is located in Ningbo and Zhoushan, on the coast of the East China Sea, in Zhejiang province on the southeast end of Hangzhou Bay, across which it faces the municipality of Shanghai.

The port is part of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road that runs from the Chinese coast to Singapore, towards the southern tip of India to Mombasa, from there through the Red Sea via the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean, there to the Upper Adriatic region to the northern Italian hub of Trieste with its connections to Central Europe and the North Sea.

[6][7][8] The Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan is involved in economic trade with cargo shipment, raw materials and manufactured goods from as far as North and South America and Oceania.

[9] The water quality within Ningbo-Zhoushan Port has become badly polluted over the past ten years, due to the massive scale of maritime traffic constantly in operation.

[9] In August 2020, the Ningbo-Zhoushan Port (NZP) Group, together with Brazilian iron ore miner Vale, inaugurated the Shulanghu (鼠浪湖码头)[12] grinding hub, after a collaboration that began in 2016.