A container with a banner reading "Yueyang New Port's 1,000,000th TEU in 2022" was loaded onto Tianyi 08 cargo ship on the morning of December 28. This marked that the container throughput of the Chenglingji Port hit one million TEUs. Chenglingji Port hence becomes the third one reaching this capacity in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River, after Chongqing and Wuhan ports.

This was an important progress of Yueyang City in implementing the Yangtze River Economic Belt Development Strategy, building a comprehensive shipping and logistics center in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and constructing a port economic demonstration zone in inland area. Chenglingji Port enters a "one-million-TEU era" of the Yangtze River.

Yueyang is the only port city in Hunan Province. There are nine national-level opening-up platforms in the city. This June, Zhang Qingwei, secretary of the CPC Hunan Provincial Committee, asked Chenglingji Port's container throughput to reach one million TEUs within this year.

In 2022, Chenglingji Port handled 5,000 shipping voyages, 2,000 more than that in previous year. Its business has extended to 13 ports along the Yangtze River trunk line, with 265,600 TEUs added.

The Chenglingji New Port Area opened a westward route to Sichuan and Chongqing region, and an eastward route to Huangshi in Hubei Province. The operation of existing routes has been intensified. It guided 15 shipping enterprises to add 21 cargo ships to enhance rail-sea combined transport infrastructure, and launched connections with the countries and regions along the Belt and Road. So far, 146,800 TEUs have been handled via rail-sea combined transport service, increasing by 286.5% year on year.

Yueyang City has leveraged the advantages of the China (Hunan) Pilot Free Trade Zone Yueyang Area to stabilize foreign trade based on institutional innovation. It rolled out more than 20 innovative measures such as "the inland river freight charge of the imported goods transported under customs transit shall not be included into the dutiable value" and optimizing the import and export management mode in the comprehensive bonded zone. These practices have greatly improved customs clearance efficiency, narrowed the cost gap between inland and coastal ports, and promoted economic development of Chenglingji Port as a foreign trade port.

This article is from the Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Pang Yuehui

Chinese source: Voice of Hunan