China Transport News:

Waterway transportation plays an important role in China's comprehensive transportation network. In recent years, waterway transportation elements such as China ports, automated terminals, marine patrol ships, and China Rescue and Salvage of Ministry of Transport of the People's Republic of China have been deeply rooted in people's hearts. Would you like to introduce us to the development of China's waterway transportation over the past decade? What will be the next focus? Thank you.

Xu Chengguang:

Thank you for your questions. Waterway transportation has several obvious advantages in terms of being able to transport large volumes of goods at low cost and in a green and low-carbon manner. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, China has developed into a major water transport country of significant influence around the world.

First, the waterway transportation infrastructure system has seen accelerated improvement. Its overall size remains the largest in the world. By the end of 2021, China had 128,000 kilometers of navigable inland waterways, including over 16,000 kilometers of high-grade inland waterways, as well as 20,867 operative berths, including 2,659 10,000-tonne class berths or above, basically forming world-class port clusters. These include the clusters around Tianjin-Hebei Region, the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, all of which are the most economically dynamic regions in our country.

Second, the scale and structure of transport capacity have been constantly improved. By 2021, China had 126,000 transport vessels with a net load of 284 million tons, a handling capacity of 2.884 million TEUs containers, and 858 million passengers. The large-scale, specialized, and standardized development of ships has accelerated in recent years. The capacity of the shipping fleet controlled by China is 350 million deadweight tons, ranking second in the world. China has more than 1.8 million registered crew members, of which nearly 140,000 are sent abroad every year, ranking among the top in the world.

Third, the service quality has been constantly improved. China's ports for container throughput and cargo throughput are ranked seventh and eighth in the world, respectively. Among them, the Shanghai Port, Ningbo Zhoushan Port, and Shenzhen Port have topped the table in container throughput for several consecutive years. In terms of port loading efficiency, the average operation time of China's main ports is significantly outperformed that of foreign countries. For example, statistics show that in May this year, the average in-port time and berthing time for vessels in domestic container ports were 1.98 days and 1.04 days, respectively, significantly lower than the average 3.3 and 2.4 days in major foreign container ports. There are 10 automated terminals in China and eight under construction, ranking first in the world. The fourth phase terminal of Shanghai Yangshan Port is the largest single terminal in the world, with the highest degree of comprehensive automation and fully independent intellectual property rights. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the supply chain of China's water transportation and logistics has been stable and smooth, ensuring smooth flow of the country's exports and imports, contributing to the stability of the global industry and supply chains.

Fourth, steady progress has been made in waterway transportation. We put people and life first and launched special campaigns to address dangerous cargo operations at ports, ship collisions with bridges, and strengthen prevention and control of safety risks for water transportation and fishing vessels. The number of water traffic accidents, the toll of dead missing, the number of sunken ships, and direct economic losses decreased by 52.2% , 44.8%, 72.1%, and 51.6%, respectively, compared to 10 years ago. In addition, the emergency rescue capability has been continuously improved. In past years, China has properly handled the Eastern Star cruise capsizing, the Sanchi oil tanker collision, and participated in the salvage mission of the sunken ROK Sewol ferry, demonstrating China's responsibility as a major country.

Going forward, we will, in accordance with overall development and security requirements, strive to enhance the safety and resilience of waterway transport, improve its quality, efficiency, and momentum to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results in waterway transportation development, and work to accelerate the building of China's water transportation industry. Thank you.