Lianyungang Port's Ro-Ro Cargo Export Volume Ranks Third in China

From: Lianyungang Daily Updated: 2023-09-09 09:25

The whistle sounded on the dock of the Eastern Port Branch of Lianyungang Port recently, and the Liberian ship "Anji Chensheng" loaded with 2800 domestic cars slowly departed from Lianyungang Port, marking the annual export of vehicles in Lianyungang exceeding 200000, a year-on-year increase of 89%.

On the dock, cars and ships shuttle back and forth, creating a bustling scene. On the yard, various brands of cars are ready to depart, and rows of cars inside the ro-ro ship are parked tightly under the command of signalmen and locators, resembling a huge multi-layer parking lot. As the third-ranked Ro-Ro truck terminal in the country, Lianyungang Port has export routes throughout Europe, Southeast Asia, South America and the Middle East.

According to statistics of the port, in the first eight months of this year, Lianyungang Port exported 215000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 73.29%.

“The ro-ro business started as early as 2005 and has shown explosive growth since 2018.” Mr. Peng, Deputy General Manager of Dongfang Port Branch said. With the rapid development of domestic automotive brands in independent research and development, product design and manufacturing, export volume has maintained a high growth rate. Lianyungang Port seizes the opportunity and adheres to the market development layout of “routes bring about cargo sources and cargo sources stabilize routes”. With SAIC Motor Corporation as the breakthrough point, it actively expands the export share proportion of Chery, Volvo and other vehicles, enhances the competitiveness of the main cargo source competition for ro-ro and creates a “regional ro-ro cargo import and export distribution center”.

With the increasing expansion of the "circle of friends", Lianyungang Port's ro-ro business has stepped on the "accelerator", and the export volume of automobiles has skyrocketed to 21000 units in 2018, 65000 units in 2019, 85000 units in 2020, 150000 units in 2021 and 226000 units in 2022, achieving double-digit growth for five consecutive years and successfully becoming one of China's three major ports for mechanical equipment and vehicle exports.

“We are implementing the '12345' development goal of building a distribution center through precise market development, improving service levels, optimizing intermodal transportation channels and creating brand culture.” Mr. Peng said. The port staff will complete the construction of a green, low-carbon, intelligent three-dimensional garage, create a professional ro-ro team and establish an efficient standardized operating system this year. Two Ro-Ro and wind power brands of top quality will be created, two core automotive brands of SAIC and Chery will be formed, and two new Ro-Ro routes will be developed. We will make a spurt towards the goal of exporting 30000 vehicles per month and 300000 vehicles per year, solidifying the port’s position among the top three in vehicle exports nationwide. At the same time, the normalization of simultaneous loading and unloading of four large trains and four ro-ro ships during the day and night needs to be achieved, promoting a market share of no less than 50% in the plywood bulk transportation market. The export increment of tons of cargo such as sodium sulfate will exceed 500000 tons, and the growth rate of wind power will exceed 50%.

It is reported that over the past 18 years of developing the ro-ro business, Lianyungang Port has established cooperation with 10 world-renowned ro-ro shipping companies in Japan, including Kawasaki, Warren Wilson and Mitsui. It has opened 15 ro-ro shipping routes from Lianyungang to the Middle East, West Africa, North Africa, North and South America, Southeast Asia, Europe and so on, reaching more than 30 docking ports around the world. It has established strategic cooperation relationships with 20 leading export machinery enterprises in the country. Export goods cover more than 40 types of engineering machinery, including large and small passenger cars, small sedans, electric vehicles and car cranes, mixing trucks, pile drivers, loaders, semi trailers and etc., with over 100 vehicle brands. The influence of the ro-ro export business continues to expand.

Since the beginning of this year, Lianyungang Port has been based on the bidirectional opening up of the east and west, promoting "double circulation", and continuously applying the sea-rail intermodal transportation and port consolidation model. The hardware facilities have been improved and upgraded, and the loading efficiency has continued to improve, driving the rapid growth of the ro-ro business. Then, Lianyungang Port will closely follow the strategic positioning of the starting point of the Continental Bridge Corridor and the international hub seaport, give play to the advantage of the "Belt and Road" land-sea junction hub, further strengthen the port function, improve the logistics network, strengthen customs clearance facilities, innovate the multimodal transport mode, speed up the qualification application of the vehicle import port and strive to achieve two-way convection of vehicles as soon as possible, so as to build Lianyungang Port into a domestic and foreign import and export vehicle base and distribution center to provide strong support for the construction of "Great Oriental Port of Ten Million TEUs".