China Merchants Holdings (International) and Chu Kong Shipping Development are teaming up to develop a Pearl River transshipment business to benefit from Guangdong’s low-carbon policies over the next five years. Deep-sea-terminal operator China Merchants has agreed to invest HKD131 million in the Chu Kong River Trade Terminal company, a subsidiary of Chu Kong, in exchange for a 20% stake in the company that operates 10 feeder ports along the Pearl River. Factories in the western Pearl River Delta could save 20% of transportation costs, up to CNY1,000 per TEU, by using barges instead of trucks to transport cargo to the sea ports for export. Emission cuts are another advantage of barges over trucks. “One barge can deliver about 100 TEU and replace at least 50 trucks on the road,” Chu Kong Shipping Chairman Hua Honglin said.

A foundation-laying ceremony for an inland port in the city of Tonghua, Jilin province, was held early this month. The development, which cost CNY300 million, will be open by the end of 2011. The inland port is a leading project in the Yalu River Economic Development Zone and the first to be equipped with bonded facilities, a customs office, inspection building, container freight station and special railway. The port is expected to be a distribution and transfer center for the surrounding area. It will increase the cooperation between Tonghua in Jilin province  and Dandong in Liaoning province. A complete transport system of railways and highways connecting the port will be in place next year. This is expected to give Dandong, the nearest city with access to the sea out of 13 cities in the eastern part of Northeast China, a greater edge. Dandong is the largest center for trade with North Korea. In the past years four railways, four expressways, two seaports, and one international airport were built in and around Dandong. Liang Qidong of the Liaoning Social Sciences Academy’s Provincial Research Institute, says the completed network will make Dandong a veritable logistics hub for all of North-east Asia.

China has established the country’s first river shipping exchange in Chongqing, which will boost the inland city’s role as a major transport hub along the Yangtze River, the Ministry of Transport said. Over the next three years, the exchange aims to service half of all cargo shipments and more than 80% of all container shipping in the upper reaches of the Yangtze river. The exchange also hopes to conduct more than 70% of ship-trading for the middle to upper reaches of the Yangtze over the next three years. The Chongqing exchange would provide specialized shipping services, including financial settlement, insurance and arbitration. It would also provide shipping information. Chongqing hoped the center would attract domestic and foreign shipping firms to set up offices in the city, the Ministry said, adding that “the Chongqing shipping exchange will be an important support and financial center for the upstream Yangtze river.” Sam Chambers, Managing Director of City Connect, a China-based transport consultancy, said: “Chongqing wants to position itself as an inland maritime center. At the moment, there is no inland city in China that provides such a range of services for shipping, such as financial and legal services.” The Ministry of Transport said transshipment of cargo from neighboring regions accounted for 35% of the cargo handled by Chongqing port, which aimed to raise that proportion to 50% in three years. The Chongqing exchange would complement the Shanghai Shipping Exchange, which was founded by the Ministry of Transport and the Shanghai government in 1996. It is China’s first national shipping exchange and is similar in some respects to the Baltic Exchange in London, the South China Morning Post reports.

Panasia Shipping Co and other companies are looking upstream at the Yangtze River as Shanghai seeks to develop its Yangshan Deep-water Port into a major trans-shipment hub. PanAsia, a wholly-owned unit of COSCO Container Lines Co, was among the first to open direct shipping lines to the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River. More than 80% of goods exported through Shanghai come from the upper reaches of the river. Two of PanAsia’s self-built container carriers, each with a capacity of 308 TEU, are used to transport containerized cargo from Jiangsu’s Taicang city to Yangshan port. A third carrier is transporting cargo between the Yangtze river city of Jiangyin and Yangshan. PanAsia plans to have nine container ships in operation by the end of this year, with shipping lines expanded to Nanjing and Zhangjiagang on the lower reaches of the Yangtze, and to Wuhan on the middle reaches. “Increasing direct shipping lines to the upper reaches of the river will offer manufacturers a non-rail option for moving goods,” said Zhou Deping of PanAsia. Throughput of containers operated by PanAsia through the Yangtze river to Shanghai climbed to 450,000 TEU in 2009, an 11% rise from a year earlier. Waterway transport accounted for only 37.5% of cargo-carrying in Shanghai last year, while railway made up less than 1%. More than 62% was handled by highway transport. Shanghai is working on a pilot program to offer tax rebates to exporters of dry bulk goods and containers departing from Qingdao in Shandong province and Wuhan that use Yangshan port as a transfer hub, the Shanghai Daily reported.

The centuries-old canal network in the Yangtze River Delta will get a multibillion-yuan injection to allow goods to be moved more efficiently and reduce worsening congestion on roads into the world’s two busiest ports by cargo tonnage, Shanghai and Ningbo. Part of the plan involved creating eight new feeder ports in the delta in Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Jinghua, Shaoxing, Hangzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou. Each feeder port would cost an estimated CNY300 million and provide a planned annual container capacity of 300,000 TEU. So far, Jiaxing is the only completed feeder port and is undergoing trial operations. Last year, cargo tonnage along the Yangtze river – including Shanghai and Ningbo – accounted for 58% of the country’s cargo throughput of 6.9 billion tons and 36% of the country’s foreign trade of USD2.2 trillion. The delta’s maze of canals – which have been compared to those of Venice and the Netherlands in terms of their complexity – is expected to serve a vital role in boosting trade. At present, the canals are narrow and mostly used to transport low-value cargo such as sand, cement and stones. The Ministry of Transport plans to deepen them to 12.5 meters and lift their bridges so bigger ships can pass.