¡¡¡¡Since last year, a large number of China¡¯s foreign trade containers have been transferred through Busan Port, which has aroused wide concern. There is a view that such an outflow causes loss to the country, and that measures should be taken to stop it. Some experts have put forward proposals that transhipment should be allowed for those ocean shipping routes provided they also do the transhipping for China¡¯s coastal trade, and in this way outflow may be prevented. Others, however, contend that the situation is to be expected given Busan Port¡¯s superior location, and, further taking the huge trade volume between China and South Korea into account, there is no need to worry too much.

¡¡¡¡What is clear at the moment, is that among the national container terminal system, the first aim is to retain as many transferred containers as possible. Meanwhile, attracting more transferred containers in foreign trade is also an important objective whether for a container port or even a hub. In the current era of a globalised economy, however, to just bind or confine won¡¯t work. Therefore, the government needs to make every effort to reduce the outflow of foreign trade container transit through policy guidance, and obviously cannot shape the market through regulating container transport routes or in which ports ships choose to berth.

¡¡¡¡The ones who determine where to send the containers should be the consignors themselves, because they always base their logistics solutions on the principle of maximising benefits. Clearly enough, ¡°maximising the benefits¡± not only refers to the lowest costs in logistics, but to a comprehensive consideration of transportation and time costs, corporate reputation and so on. Specifically, before choosing the low-cost routes, a consignor must also compare route schedules, current service routes and other factors.

¡¡¡¡At present, there are two major factors affecting the choice of a port for container transfer. On the one hand, the reason why many consignors prefer to have their containers transferred abroad is to obtain the export tax rebate as early as possible. Nowadays, regarding transfers in China coastal ports, a consignor can only receive an export tax rebate when a foreign trade container is taken aboard an international liner. For the overseas transit, meanwhile, tax rebates are made after a container is uploaded onto the feeder line carrier. On the other hand, foreign ships cannot be engaged in coastal shipping in China, and thus the only option becomes setting up the base port abroad. It is evident that adjustment of these two policies will greatly reduce the outflow of containers. At the same time, thanks to the highly developed information technology today, even if the ocean shipping vessels are allowed in transhipment, control could still be available through strengthening information management.

¡¡¡¡In addition, provided those major container ports possess sufficient container shipping in the hinterland, the ultra-low-cost strategy must be a way to attract more international transferred containers. The so-called ¡°ultra-low-cost¡± is based on the marginal cost price. Given the fact that fixed costs of an enterprise could be compensated by the business generated by the hinterland, the international transit can in fact be seen as an ¡°extra¡± business. As long as the price charged is higher than the marginal cost, there will be profits. And this is just the strategy ports in South Korea are adopting at the moment.