Billion-Ton-Port Series Report--Yingkou port



¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡Yingkou Port:Revitalising Northeast China from the Coast

¡¡¡¡By Sun Guangqi, Chen Xiaolong, Zhai Jing

¡¡¡¡To accelerate revitalisation  of old industrial bases in Northeast China, Liaoning Province has set forth the ¡°6+1 Economic Area¡± proposal. ¡°6¡± refers to the six major industrial cities in central Liaoning Province with Shenyang as the focus, ¡°1¡± means its access into the sea, i.e. Yingkou Port. As the important import and export node along the transport chain for the Northeast China hinterland, Yingkou Port has been nominated by Liaoning Province to receive the most initial support.

Specialised terminals, detailed labour division

¡¡¡¡At present, Yingkou Port has two production areas of Bayuquan and Yingkou, and a third area - Xianrendao - is to begin official construction soon. Since the ¡°10th Five-Year Plan¡±, almost every year Yingkou Port has had one more large-scale specialised terminal put into use. In particular, the 200,000-ton ore terminal and the 100,000-ton oil berth were both quickly completed from project initiation. The former 24-berth group in 1999 has been enlarged to 50, most of which are specialised terminals for containers, Ro-Ro vehicle transport, coal, bulk grain, ore, refined oil and liquid chemicals, as well as some being partly bulk groceries and multi-purpose berths. In addition, to transport those over-length and over-weight products from equipment manufacturing industry, Yingkou Port has specially prepared terminals for handling such major pieces. After building the 2 million-m2 logistics park with steel warehouses and bonded warehouses together with supporting projects, Yingkou Port is now in posession of a complete operating platform.
¡¡¡¡Now, Yingkou Port is fully capable of accommodating and unloading sixth-generation container carriers.
¡¡¡¡During the ¡°11th Five-Year Plan¡± Yingkou Port will invest RMB 14 billion into port construction, including major projects such as the 300,000-ton Xianrendao oil terminal, deepwater channel improvement project, Bayuquan Port 4th terminal project, Bayuquan Port deepwater channel improvement project, Bayuquan Port offshore bulk berth, Bayuquan Port A basin project, etc.  The 300,000-ton Xianrendao oil terminal is to get prepared to receive investment from CNPC, after which another new promising target - the petrochemical industry - will soon take shape in Yingkou.

¡¡¡¡Upgrading the logistics service system

¡¡¡¡Both Changchun-Dalian Railway with a 100-million-ton transport capacity, and Harbin-Dalian High-speed Railway with a  200-350 km/h designed speed are currently under construction. Meanwhile, Shenyang-Dalian highway and Harbin-Dalian highway run from north to the south, while Zhuanghe-Linxi Road, Yingkou-Dalian Road, and Gaizhou-Xiuyan Road are connecting east to the west.
¡¡¡¡In the convenient and efficient collection and distribution system, Yingkou Port has been doing the utmost to turn itself into a ¡°Grand Sea Access¡± for Shenyang. In order to exploit the advantages of the inland port, offices have successively been established in Shenyang, Anshan, Fushun, Benxi, Liaoyang and Tieling. By the end of 2007, Yingkou Port had again expanded its boundaries to build up a second inland port in Changchun.

¡¡¡¡Implement allied strategies

¡¡¡¡Yingkou Port values allied cooperation with ship owners, particularly close and long-term cooperation with China Shipping Group Company. In 2007, CSCL achieved nearly 45 million TEU throughput via Yingkou Port, up by 97.4%, accounting for more than 30% of the total container throughput of Yingkou Port. By the end of 2007, the two sides had together set up a container terminal joint venture to operate container berths 53 and 54 in Yingkou Port, the annual container throughput is estimated to reach 1 million TEU.
¡¡¡¡Simultaneously, Yingkou Port has been gradually strengthening ties with surrounding ports. In February 2007, it signed a joint venture contract with Panjin Port, whereby both will invest in setting up joint ventures in Panjin Port for accelerating its construction and development. The new port area will mainly handle, storage and transfer of crude and refined oil, with a smaller groceries component.

¡¡¡¡Create efficient customs environment

¡¡¡¡In recent years, Yingkou Port has been vigorously developing information construction and implementing port service reform, thus the port service environment is improving in steps. So far, Yingkou Port has finished a relatively complete EDI Centre, integrating marine, electronic packing lists, application imputing of export ships and comprehensive enquiry system, which is to support shipping companies, agents, ports, terminals, cargo handling, freight forwarding, collection and distribution stations, consignors and authorities concerned - the customs and three inspection departments - in EDI with banks and insurance companies. In this process, Yingkou Port provides efficient, convenient, swift, accurate and economical information services.

Feature  challenges

¡¡¡¡Portside economy challenges saturated capacity
¡¡¡¡First, Yingkou Port falls more or less behind in its container handling capacity. The port¡¯s neighboring industrial structures are not rational enough to get closely associated with port development. And large-scale industrial products such as steel and petrochemical products dominate industrial products, comprising the majority of port throughput. Additionally, there is a certain gap in route density of foreign trade container shipping compared with the nearby Tianjin Port and Dalian Port, which directly prevents Yingkou Port from enlarging its service scope.
¡¡¡¡Secondly, Yingkou Port is short of professionalised large berths. Besides the only base of Bayuquan Port area, other large-scale ore or crude oil terminals are so limited that Yingkou Port still cannot meet the requirement of anchoring large ships serving ANSTEEL, CNPC Branches and other enterprises in the economic hinterland.
¡¡¡¡Then, Yingkou Port needs to have its customs clearance environment upgraded before reaching the same level as Dalian, Qingdao and Tianjin, though there have been efforts devoted to improve cooperation with customs, immigration, inspection, quarantine and other organisations.

¡¡¡¡Concluding remarks

¡¡¡¡The ¡°Billion-Ton-Club¡± series features are coming to an end so far.
¡¡¡¡Recalling the 14 billion-ton major ports, we feel their charm is not only limited to the individual development regarding innovation and breakthrough, but also reflected in their irreplaceable unique position and role among ports, and more importantly, this embodies the mainstream of China¡¯s port development trend - cooperation and integration. We hope that through this series of articles, readers will not only gather experiences in port development, but also have more in-depth understanding and mastery of the port industry.