What Has Guangxi Achieved in Co-Building the New Western Sea-Land Transportation Channel in 2019?

Li Min Luo Jie

Linking the golden sand dune to the azure sea， the New Western Sea-Land Transportation Channel （hereinafter referred to as the New Channel） not only better connects the Belt and Road， but also enables the western provinces and autonomous regions to further embrace global opportunities. During the period of Chinas “Two Sessions” （the National Peoples Congress and the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference） in 2019， Chinese Premier Li Keqiang emphasized that the New Channel is a dominating route that Guangxi is coupled with vast western areas， and connecting to Southeast Asia， so it is crucial for Guangxi to play a good pivotal role and draw on location advantage.

What has Guangxi achieved in promoting the construction of the New Channel in 2019？ We found the answers from the Press Conference on the Promotion of the New Western Sea-Land Transportation Channel in Guangxi.

The linkage between land and sea： more vehicles， ships and cargos

In 2019， the Overall Plan for the New Western Sea-Land Transportation Channel was released officially in August. Guangxi has continuously expanded the inter-regional cooperation with 14 provinces， autonomous regions and municipalities in the circle of the New Channel， and perfected the policy system and work promotion. Therefore， remarkable achievements have been obtained by Guangxi in terms of sea-land trunk lines， infrastructure construction， the integration of low-cost， high-efficiency and excellent service.

Currently， automobiles， motorcycles and chemical products from Sichuan， Chongqing and Liuzhou of Guangxi are continuously exported to the major global ports by virtue of the New Channel. The cold chain and other specialties turn into the “new favorites”， and refrigerated shipping containers are directly imported to the Chinese inland cities through Beibu Gulf Port. The smooth transportation of goods cannot be separated from the linkage between land and sea， as well as the expanding proportion of block trains and liners in railway-marine combined transportation.

The Vice Director of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Development and Reform Commission Yan Bogui introduced that Beibu Gulf Port opened five normal lines dispatching to Chongqing， Sichuan， Yunnan， Guizhou， Gansu and Qinghai， connecting seamlessly with China Railway Express. The 1，635 railway-marine combined trains of Beibu Gulf Port have been operated until October 20， 2019， with the length increased by 115%. Chongqing Block Trains are operated every day with more than doubled numbers year-on-year. The liners between Beibu Gulf Port and Hong Kong are operated every day， and the regular ship dispatching to Singapore is operated twice per week with the utilization rate rising from less than 5% in 2018 to 31%. In September 2019， Beibu Gulf Port opened a new ocean-going shipping line to South America.

Driven by the railway-marine combined transportation， the cargo throughput of Beibu Gulf Port has grown rapidly. “It is estimated that Beibu Gulf Port will have a 200-million-ton cargo throughput a year with a year-on-year rise of 13%， and the annual container throughput will be 3.7 million TEUs， an increase of 28% year-on-year.” Deputy General Manager of Guangxi Beibu Gulf Port Group Xie Yi noted， “From January to September 2019， the growth rate of cargo throughput ranked third among Chinas coastal ports， and that of containers ranked first.”

Strengthen infrastructure construction， remedy shortcomings and increase confidence

The New Channel relates not only to the interconnection and communication among partners along the line， but also to the capacity building of each participant. As an important gate， Guangxi has evident geographical advantages， but the insufficient infrastructure construction limits the exertion of advantages partly. To enhance the relationship with other partners， Guangxi promptly breaks the bottleneck for laying a solid infrastructure.

“On June 30， 2019， the first phase of Qinzhou Railway Container Center Station （the Project） was officially put into use， so the annual handling capacity of Qinzhou Ports containers reached 1.05 million TEUs， and the daily capacity reached 20 loaders，” Yan Bogui presented. There was a five-kilometer journey between the container terminal of Qinzhou Port and the container handling station of Qinzhou Port Dong Station， thus the flatbed was a necessarily inefficient method to transport goods. However， the Project allows the operation area of the railway containers to be built in the terminal， realizing the seamless docking of railway-marine transportation and effectively solving the “Last Kilometer” of railway-marine combined transportation.

In June 2019， the first phase of the expansion of the east channel in Qinzhou Port was handed over for acceptance， while the second phase is scheduled to start construction before 2020. Meanwhile， No. 9-10 container berth of Dalanping South Operation Area will be constructed soon.

Guangxi has actively strengthened the interconnection of land transportation infrastructure， apart from upgrading shipping and port facilities. Director of Comprehensive Planning Division of Department of Transport of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Lu Min said that Guangxi built 43 focal projects from 2018 to 2019 for remedying shortcomings， with an investment of about RMB 96.8 billion yuan. Among them， seven projects， including the reconstruction of Nanning-Qinzhou-Fangchenggang project， the electrification of the section from Huaihua of Hunan to Liuzhou of Guangxi in Jiaozuo-Liuzhou Railway， have been put into operation; 26 projects， containing the building-up of the second railway line of Huangtong-Baise Railway and the section from Baise of Guangxi to Weishe of Guizhou in Nanning-Kunming Railway have been under construction.

As a batch of major transportation projects were completed， Lu said that Guangxi is to form a land transportation channel with railway as backbone and high-grade highway as supplementary， and basically build a deep-water port in Beibu Gulf with international influence.

Low-cost， high-efficiency and excellent service： improving core competitiveness of the New Channel

The New Channel has a bright prospect with the support of corresponding policies， but to be popular in the fierce market is not just powered by policy support， so how do we improve core competitiveness of the New Channel？ Guangxi made great efforts in low-cost， high-efficiency and excellent service.

Transportation cost is of particular concern to enterprises， so Guangxi has been a strong champion of “fixed price and one-ticket system”. The fixed price of railway-marine combined transportation from Chongqing to Singapore via Beibu Gulf Port is RMB 3，800 yuan per TEU， a 38% decrease in the price comparing with the combination of sectional charges. In Guangxi Qinzhou Free Trade Port Area， relevant units decline compliance costs from RMB 6，000 yuan to RMB 7，000 yuan per ticket in 2017 to the current RMB 4，000 yuan to RMB 5，000 yuan per ticket by some methods， such as lowering port operation charge， exempting cooling charge of refrigerated containers in railway-marine combined transportation， and reducing the fee of customs declaration. In Guangxi Pingxiang Integrated Free Trade Zone， relevant units cut the container lift charge to decrease the cost of customs clearance by 15.2%.

Guangxi has shaped a sound environment of customs clearance， and the overall time of import and export customs clearance has been greatly shortened. Guangxis “single window” business is applied in all ports now. Deputy Director-General of Department of Commerce of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Tan Xiuhong noted that in September 2019， the overall time of import customs clearance in Guangxi was 9.63 hours， ranking first in the country， an 82.98% reduction than 2017; while that of export customs clearance was 1.16 hours， a 91.75% decrease than 2017. And the time of import customs clearance in Beibu Gulf Port closes to the advanced level， while the time of customs clearance in road ports tops in the country.

Accompanied by low cost and high efficiency， Guangxi companies have enhanced the comprehensive capability of railway-marine combined transportation service. “Our expanding partners include ports， railways and shipping companies， which are collaborating with the western provinces， autonomous regions and municipalities. Guangxi Beibu Gulf Port Group cooperated with China Railway Nanning Group and China Railway Chengdu Group to establish Guangxi Beibu Gulf International Multimodal Transportation Development LTD for optimizing the service process and transportation organization of railway-marine combined transportation，” said Xie Yi. “We also spontaneously propel the cooperation with Alibaba， Tencent and PSA Singapore in big data， 5G， AI and cloud computing， to set up the ‘Beibu Gulf Port Net and a public booking service platform， providing one-stop comprehensive information services involving fixed price and one-ticket system， business processing， goods tracking for customers.”

Looking back into the past， Guangxi caught up with current situation to promote the construction of the New Channel; Looking forward to the future， Guangxi will work hard for a substantial mission to gain more achievements.