The Strategic Choice of Yangtze River Shipping

Reporter Zhang Xianghui

Looking far from Wuhan Yangtze River No.1 Bridge, the Yangtze River is shrouded in a grey haze, a few ships carrying sediment are visible. The small navigation models are floating in series and afar, dimly into the distance, which divide in order the wide channel... After several days' interview along the Yangtze River, many ship owners told reporter that the Yangtze River shipping enterprises live like the ships sailing in the smog, making people feel unsafe.They expect the smog to disperse as early as possible.

According to incomplete statistics, at present, there are around 2800 inland water transport companies in the Yangtze River area, more than 90% are small and medium-sized enterprises, showing the disadvantages such as weak, small and large quantities. Among them, more than 2500 enterprises are engaged in the dry bulk transport, about 210 enterprises are engaged in dangerous chemicals in bulk, about 20 engaged in passenger transport. The overall status of enterprises is low scale, low personnel quality, low management level, low capital level and so on.From the point of enterprise scale, most of them are private companies and individuals. According to Zhu Hong, the Secretary-general of Yangtze River Shipowner Association, at present, the current individual ships in Yangtze River amount to 30000. A family has one ship or two small boats. Ship's quality is generally low, not to mention building technology. From the point of personnel quality, most small and mediumsized enterprises still stay in the original stage of apprenticeship, the education background of crew is low, most of them are without professional training,including management, the level of education is not high, especially with the increase of the human cost,enterprise is difficult to recruit crew based on the wage level in past few years , not to mention to recruit high quality talents, now in the Yangtze River, crew's wage is 4000 Yuan/month on average, compared with the land security work which is also paid by 4000 Yuan/month, the crew work is not subject to favor. And is the enterprise management level, the management quality itself is not high, management ability is poor, enterprise operation mode is simple, extensive and rigid, without establishing a modern enterprise management system in freight means, employment mechanism and incentive mechanism, and still stay in the time of the capital primitive accumulation. Company lack of enough attraction to crew, crew member lack of dedication to the company, the establishment and implementation of safety management system has “two skins”phenomenon. Capital problem, in particular, because the small and medium-sized enterprise is hard to get a loan from bank, lead to enterprise capital insufficiency, often form a vicious circle. Enterprise equipment level is low,in the hardware facilities, equipment upgrading and the use of new technologies are obviously not enough, and enterprises development dynamic is insufficient.

In short, at present, small and medium-sized private shipping enterprises in the Yangtze River area are generally poor in strength, and narrow in business scope. The coverage of direct line is small, and the comprehensive logistics service ability is poor,still keeping the traditional service process. The specialization and information level is low, it is therefore hard to meet customer needs. As a result, the ability to resist risk is poor, and it is difficult to improve the profit margin. There is a stark contrast between the overall grim reality and the role of the Yangtze River as golden waterway for shipping industry.