Huitong Port, a part of Huaihua International Land Port, officially started operation on August 26. Located at Lianshan Station on the Jiaozuo-Liuzhou Railway, the new port spans 350 mu (about 23.3 hectares) with a total investment of 500 million CNY. It will be built in three phases, it is designed to handle an annual freight throughput of 2.6 million tonnes initially, with long-term capacity reaching 4.22 million tonnes.
 
The port will serve a number of surrounding counties and cities, including Jingzhou, Tongdao, Dongkou, Suining, and Chengbu in Hunan, as well as Tianzhu, Jinping, and Liping in Guizhou. It connects southern counties in Huaihua City to the railway trunk line of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, breaking the logistics constraints caused by long-term dependence on road transport in the border region among Hunan, Guizhou, and Guangxi.

The port's dedicated railway line reaches deep into Lianshan Industrial Park, allowing goods to be loaded onto trains "right at the factory gate." It is estimated that local businesses can cut their total logistics costs by about 30% compared with road-only transport. The Hunan Xiangtong Industrial Co., Ltd., which produces six million suitcases and bags annually, used to pay over 1,000 CNY more per container for shipments to Nansha Port than coastal factories. Today, its products can be loaded directly from the production line onto trains and transshipped to international freight services. A spokesperson from the Hunan Dazhuang Bamboo Industry Co., Ltd. noted that the "road-to-rail" service combined with direct dedicated line eliminates short-haul trucking fees, reducing overall costs by roughly 30%. Currently, Huitong Port handles a wide range of bulk and specialty cargoes, including bamboo and wood products, suitcases, bags and leather goods, grain and feed, fertilizers and agricultural supplies, sand and gravel, building materials, ores, and coal.

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

Translator: Pang Yuehui

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn