Maersk sent 50 TEUs from Huangpu of Guangzhou to Yantian on August 8th, 2007.


 ¡¡¡¡Time-Saving & Cost-Effectiveness

¡¡¡¡Yuannan Jet Get Freight Forwarders Co., Ltd. (JGF), a logistics supplier located in Kunming, is also an agent for two local exporters of mechanical and electrical equipments, and has been credited with high efficiency and quality of service all the time. Beginning from last April, however, with oil price, and hence business costs spiraling up, the supplier suddenly finds itself menaced by a serious drain of profit, as transport of the same kind of goods and by the same quantity requires several thousands yuan more than just a few months ago. And the situation could be worse if involved frequently in traffic jams, which not only delays timely delivery, but also caused more business losses.
¡¡¡¡Then on Nov. 28th, 2007, Yantian International Container Terminals Limited (YICT), a joint venture established by the Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) Group and Shenzhen Yantian Port Group (YPG), launched the first container train service along the YanKun (Yantian-Kunming) rail line, designed to move 50 FEUs each single trip, and part of the goods loaded on that train belonged to no other than JGF, saving it nearly 20 hours in transport time and 3000-4000 yuan each FEU.
¡¡¡¡A typical case in Yunnan it is though, which, a borderline province, is always vexed about poor freight conditions. Take Kunming for example, export is carried mostly only by highway and through mountains to Guangxi-based Fangcheng and Beihai ports, Zhanjiang port in Guangdong or Huangpu port of Guangzhou city, costing both time and money, and beset by various risks. Meanwhile, goods that are either to be shipped abroad, or of high additional values usually have to be marshalled to Shenzhen or Hong Kong before being reloaded eventually onto an international liner at Huangpu port. The problem is that the more links there exist, the more input is needed to cover them.
¡¡¡¡YICT is one of the few port operators in mainland China that also runs railways, which, combined with the great density of shipping routes developed at the basin adds simply one more advantage to its business advantage. Not that Yunnan has nothing to boast. As early as 2001, the 180-mu east train yard of Kunming Railway Station had been completed and has since become the largest container yard in southwest China, co-funded by the Ministry of Railways and Kunming Railway Bureau, and capable of receiving four full-loaded trains at once.

¡¡¡¡Warehousing & Customs clearance

¡¡¡¡The YanKun container train service is the third sea-rail container transport service launched by YICT in 2007, as well as the fourth such service opened by Shenzhen city. PingYan railway, exclusively used for cargo marshalling/distribution at the basin, is connected directly with Jingjiu and Jingguang arteries, and is thereby further extended into Changsha, Nanchang and vast areas within and outside of Guangdong province. It seems a wise approach that, from the very beginning, YICT has persisted in the sea-rail service program and carried it out in cooperation with exporters and railway departments as a long-term strategy.
¡¡¡¡It in fact signals a change occurring rapidly in the port and shipping sectors and becomes even a necessity for port advancement. According to the latest research from the Wharton School and Boston Consulting Group, the logistics costs in China currently reach as high as 2900 billion yuan, which is equivalent to 21% of the country¡¯s GDP. Yet it comes to mere 10% of the GDP in the developed countries. Thus, when more and more shippers struggling for ways to organize efficient, reliable and low-cost means to move goods from factory to port berths, the sea-rail intermodal service may prove to be the very best answer.
¡¡¡¡Matched management and service is necessitated though, such as is shown in efficient and facilitating customs clearance. Thus the tactics of ¡°local declaration for immediate release at seaport¡± becomes important. That is, shippers are allowed to do customs declaration at their various local places, then move goods by sea-rail service containers to the port for final inspection and release, reducing the double process of declaration, inspection and release to a single process.

¡¡¡¡LINK

¡¡¡¡Sea-rail intermodal services opened by YICT

¡¡¡¡¡ôChangPing of Dongwan-Yantian, launched on June 18th, 2005, freight sources covering a neighborhood of 10 kilometers around Changping station;

¡¡¡¡¡ôGanzhou-Yantian, launched on March 29th, 2007; 20 hours for a single trip, and about 1400 yuan saved for each TEU in comparison with trucking;

¡¡¡¡¡ôDalang, Guangzhou-Yantian, launched on April 18th, 2007 for the transport of tens of thousands of toys;

¡¡¡¡¡ôKunming-Yantian, launched on Nov. 28th, 2007; 50 hours for a single trip, and 3000-4000 yuan saved for each FEU compared with trucking.