Multimodal transport to be expanded at the Port of Shanghai
May 14, 2019 Category China News Round-up, Weekly
A joint venture focusing on multimodal transport is being established this month at the port of Shanghai, as part of efforts to increase transport efficiency and lower carbon emissions. “Sea and rail transport should have played a greater role in container shipping. But it has grown slowly due to the insufficient railway network at Shanghai’s major port area of Waigaoqiao and Yangshan. We expect to expand the ocean-rail transportation volume to 80,000 TEU by the end of this year, and more than double this to 200,000 TEU in 2020,” said Yan Jun, President of Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG), a terminal operator.
SIPG will hold a 45% stake in the new joint venture, while China COSCO Shipping Corp will have 20%. The balance would be held by the National Railway Administration and China Railway Container Transport Corp. According to Yan, since last May, the company has been striving to increase the port’s ocean-rail transport capacity. The multimodal transport company, with a heavy focus on technology, will have a competitive edge over road transport in environmental and cost aspects. “The absence of a rail connection to major port areas has been a major barrier for the port of Shanghai. Railways are one of the most important solutions for logistics, and it is key to land transportation,” said Lin Guolong, Director of the Shanghai Maritime University’s Logistics Research Center.
Railway transport trials are already under way since April as containers can be shipped directly via rail from Suzhou to Yangshan’s Luchaogang hub in the Pudong New Area in three hours, according to the Shanghai Shipping Exchange. Sophisticated international ports usually have between 20% and 40% of their goods shipped by sea-rail transport. For transportation with distances of above 600 kilometers, water-rail can reduce costs by about 30% compared to water-land. Merely 60,000 TEU were transported by ocean-rail at the port of Shanghai in 2018, which is in stark contrast with the port’s title of being the world’s largest container port since 2010, and is far below its container operation volume of 42.01 million TEU last year. The Port of Shanghai has also announced plans to join hands with the Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan, the world’s largest port by cargo turnover, for development, operation and management of the north side of the Xiao Yangshan port area, the China Daily reports.
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