The “China Airlines Hanya 1” upon the direct route of Hanya was anchored at the berth, and the huge gantry crane smoothly loaded and unloaded.... On March 22, the chilly wind with drizzle over the river was blowing, while the dock in the Yangluo port area of Wuhan, Hubei was very lively. Since January, 2,234 TEUs and 9 voyages of import and export containers have been transported by direct routes between Wuhan and Japan and South Korea, with a year-on-year increase of 64.5%.
In June 2021, the Hubei Port Resources Integration Work Plan was issued, and Hubei Port Group Co., Ltd. was established. The agglomeration effect of resource integration provided a strong support for the “port aircraft carrier of Hubei” to whistle and set sail. The Group intensified its efforts to build up an open economic pattern, and actively advanced the normal operation of Hanya direct shipping routes, thus opening a new window for Hubei and the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River to the outside world.
The Group has been actively working on the “rest of the plan” over the port resource integration this year, and it moved faster to deliver the transition from “physical integration” to “chemical integration”. Meanwhile, it actively promoted the construction of the Wuhan Yangtze River Middle Reaches Shipping Center and Wuhan’s central hub port, which helped the golden waterway of the Yangtze River produce the “golden benefits”.
Create a “1 + 4 + n” port business layout
“This port integration serves as a cross-administrative region and in-depth integration of port resources.” The relevant staff in charge of Hubei Port Group introduced that the total asset scale of it reached 55 billion yuan after integration, and the hardcore strength has become more and more evident.
Hubei has further defined the functional orientation of each port and established a development pattern with Wuhan port as the core, Southeast Hubei port and Yichang Jingzhou port as the two wings, and Hanjiang port as the extension. Among them, Wuhan Port serves as a container hub port in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, Yichang Port is positioned as the Three Gorges Dam transshipment port, Jingzhou Port is positioned as a hub port for coal, railway and waterway intermodal transport, Huangshi Port is set as a bulk and general cargo distribution center, and the rest of the ports appear to be feeder ports. In doing so, it strived to build up a “1 + 4 + n” port business layout.
On September 16, 2021, Sanjiang Port of Hubei Port Group was officially opened. This is the first port opened after the integration of port resources in Hubei, an important step forward in the transformation of Hubei port resources from “physical integration” to “chemical integration”. In January this year, the Group officially took over the first phase of Wuhan Yangluo Port Area, and thereby realizing unified operation of the first, the second and third phases of this port, which helped accelerate the integration of ports.
After nearly 10 months of development, the cargo handling capacity of Hubei port has increased from 100 million tons to 205 million tons, the number of berths has increased from 68 to 179, and the navigable mileage has increased from 720 kilometers to 1,545 kilometers. The physical change of “from small to large, from scattered to combined” has laid a solid foundation for building 100-billion-yuan port enterprises.
Integration of wisdom and improvement of multimodal transport system
How to advance “the rest of the plan” over port resource integration with high quality? Integration and upgrading are the necessary ways to follow. The Group put forward a list of 58 tasks from four aspects: vigorously developing markets, optimizing resource allocation, keeping prudent investment and operation, and strengthening corporate governance. In addition, it made great efforts in port operation, project initiation, enterprise integration as well as channel development.
In terms of the infrastructure construction, the Group actively promoted the completion of construction in progress, and successively put into use 5 modern terminals, added 15 berths, and increased the port handling capacity by 30 million tons. Meanwhile, it started the construction of special railway line with a total length of 4.37 kilometers at Cheyang River Port in Songzi, Jingzhou, and launched the implementation of the renovation project upon the railway-waterway intermodal transport terminal in the Zhicheng operation area of Yichang Port.
Combined with the industrial structure and resource endowment of the port hinterland, the Group improved and adjusted the functions of each port area with “some retainment, some reduction and some expansion”. At the same time, it continuously strengthened and improved the hub port in central Wuhan, and took accelerated efforts to the construction of Wuhan in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River Shipping Center, which helped promote the integration and upgrading of port elements and functions around the province. In addition, it intensified the business planning and market development of each port area, established a command and dispatch center, and connected the monitoring videos of 16 major port areas to the group information platform.
Hubei Port Group also strived to improve the multimodal transport system, and successively opened container routes from Yangluo port area to Longtan port area in Nanjing, Jining port in Shandong and Busan Port in South Korea, etc., and opened up the coastal railway and waterway intermodal transport channel from Ankang, Shaanxi to Yangluo port area and to the coast. Meanwhile, it actively promoted the construction of 6 railway entry areas projects, including Xiangyang Xiaohe port area and Jingmen Shayang port area to enhance the accessibility of the logistics system. And it took full advantage of the container air-rail intelligent transshipment technology to open the “last mile” of railway-waterway combined transportation in Yangluo east port area. The strategic cooperation between China COSCO Shipping Group, Shanghai Port Group and other port and shipping enterprises has created a modern water transportation system of “river-sea combined transportation, water-railway combined transportation, water-water direct transportation, piggyback transportation along the river, and integration of port and city.”
Reprinted from: China Transportation News Network