¡¡¡¡A growing number of barges are commuting among ports in the Pearl River Delta (PRD). Britain's Financial Times published a special feature stating that China's developed coastal areas, together with soaring domestic demand, has drawn economic activity into the less developed hinterland, with barges believed to symbolise this trend.
¡¡¡¡Container transport extensions in the PRD are exploring their way through both opportunities and risks.

¡¡¡¡Not only has the flourishing economy and fast developing transport network in the PRD generated ample container volume for ocean-going shipping, but it has also contributed so much to the prosperity of container extension transport within this area where 18% of the nationwide inland river transport volume was completed last year. Meanwhile, larger scale carriers have been able to reduce harbour anchoring along major routes, which has posed new challenges to liner companies in terms of their ability to appeal to enough customers. On one hand, liner companies have to expand into the hinterland for more goods resources. On the other hand, they need to show optimal allocation of their own routes by speeding up turnover rates and lowering costs for coordinating containers, especially those empty ones. Thus the demand for transport extensions will continue inevitably to increase.
¡¡¡¡Therefore, how to maintain this benign development and improve the transport services environment has become a common concern in the whole industry.

¡¡¡¡"Shuttle bus" to lead the trend

¡¡¡¡With a fully developed economy, the PRD has accommodated a pool of powerful ports. Apart from the cargo supply transported by way of extensions from the interior regions to those ocean-going routes, the extension transport between Guangdong and Hong Kong is getting increasingly intensive. Statistics show that more than 90% of those container carriers currently anchoring in Shenzhen Port will also berth in Hong Kong. And roughly 20% of the container throughput by Shenzhen Port is supported by Guangdong-Hongkong barge extensions. Meanwhile, a considerable part of Guangzhou Port's cargo transit relies on Hong Kong through waterway extensions.
¡¡¡¡In container extension transport competition, all ports within the PRD region are looking for opportunities to improve their hardware facilities so as to enhance working efficiency. Thus to find out approaches able to provide the most considerate and appropriate services has been taking an increasingly important role in this contest.
¡¡¡¡Shenzhen Port is pioneering the "Pearl River Strategy" to develop sea channels out of its western port area. In Dec. 2007, Dachan Bay was put into operation, before which Shenzhen and CHU KONG Shipping Enterprises (Holdings) Co., Ltd. (CKS) signed a strategic cooperation agreement. Shenzhen Port was to use 16 local river ports owned by the latter party to provide cargo supply for both the Dachan Bay and its whole western port area; both sides were to cooperate in establishing a river-ocean intermodal terminal in the Dachan Bay. This agreement is believed to enjoy a quite promising future. According to officials from CKS, by 2020, inland shipping is expected to supply Shenzhen with nearly 6 million TEU of container cargo.
¡¡¡¡As for Guangzhou Port, its "shuttle bus" is more exemplary. With the "Southern Extension" strategy, Guangzhou Port is focussing on the construction of Nansha Port area, and launched "shuttle bus", providing public barge transportation services, in 2006. These "shuttle buses" on one hand commute between Nansha Port and Whampoa, Zhaoqing, Dongguan, Shunde, Guigang, even other terminals in the PRD, while on the other hand they reach out to Hong Kong, making extension transport even more appealing. Two months after the "shuttle bus" service commenced, over half of those liners who had already opened regular routes in Guangzhou Port had signed up for this service. Furthermore, at the first anniversary of this service in July 2007, "shuttle buses" were able to complete more than 8,000 TEU per month. At present, Xiamen Port, Yangshan Port and Ningbo Port all have opened their own "shuttle bus" services.

¡¡¡¡The Warring States era comes to the fore

¡¡¡¡There are statistics showing that approximately 350 liner companies are providing container extension transport services in the PRD as well as Guangdong coastal region, with around 1,500 ships involved. The fierce competition has cultivated a number of prominent enterprises such as Wuzhou Shipping, CKS and Sinoway Shipping. Among them, Universal Shipping seems rather representative of the majority.
¡¡¡¡When it comes to the business ideology, rather than valuing a single transaction or a single way of profit making, Universal Shipping pursues comprehensive benefits based on extension transport and its logistics platform; in business model, Universal Shipping possesses an extension transport services network known for being "the most extensive in coverage, running the most efficiently, and requiring the lowest costs", whose mode of operation includes period lease, ship lease, exchange of routes, exchange of space, space purchasing, etc. At the same time, Universal Shipping has attached great significance onto displaying the brand effect of China Shipping and CSCL, it also explores resources from ship owners, terminals, agents as well as yards. Based on this solid foundation, Universal Shipping is sparing no efforts in moulding an extension transport logistics platform in resources-centralised areas and terminals. It is undeniable that China Shipping' s booming container shipping, together with its investment in Nansha terminals, has significantly assisted Universal Shipping in enlarging container volume, thus increasing economic efficiency.

¡¡¡¡Competition yet to be standardised

¡¡¡¡It should not be overlooked that there are still problems remaining. With the large number of companies engaged in inland waterway transportation within the PRD, competition on each route is intense. In particular, the approaches of freight decreases have resulted in a kind of vicious competition. In addition, many enterprises run local extension transport that is set either by local government investment, or under regional protectionism, which leaves the economic hinterland artificially and unreasonably separated. This makes it is difficult for enterprises concerned to follow the rule of full market competition, not to mention survival of the fittest.
¡¡¡¡For regional transport enterprises, the best way to develop dramatically is to build up efficient and reliable information services, enhance cooperation and connection with ports, trunk route liners, create highly efficient as well as highly qualified transport services, thus improving their own core competitiveness. The successful experiences of Universal Shipping have proved that major companies need to expand their business scale for exploring effective ways of fully utilising the advantages of their service network, and also establishing corresponding strategic alliances, so as to eventually finalise an extension transport network covering the entire PRD region. The traditional customer group is to be enlarged by establishing long-term relationships with those largest liner companies via this sophisticated network.