Domestic and multinational companies peddling their wares to the country’s rapidly growing inland consumer markets are speeding the growth of logistics inland. Here are few notable hubs:
Nanjing
China’s largest inland port and Asia’s largest river port, with annual throughput of 3 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) by the end of June 2010.
Anhui province
Ma’anshan, Wuhu, Tongling and Anqing are likely to play key roles in the industrialization and increase in river traffic.
Anqing is launching plans to develop a large-scale logistics park near its existing port.
Ma’anshan, 30 km from Nanjing airport, serves as a strategic rail connection to the high-speed link between Beijing and Shanghai.
Wuhu has plans to build a 100,000 TEU-capacity port with long-term capacity expected to reach 300,000 TEUs.
Wuhan
The city has invested more than US$4 billion in its port in a bid to become the country’s second-largest inland port after Nanjing. It plans to raise annual capacity from 2 million TEUs to 5 million TEUs between 2015-2020 and reach 10 million TEUs by 2030.
Wuhan also constructed the first deepwater port in the Yangtze River’s middle reaches. An expressway has been built along the Yangtze to enable greater port access.
Chongqing
The most significant port on the upper Yangtze, with annual throughput of over 1.5 million TEUs. The municipality has plans to invest in 19 new rail lines at a cost of US$3.5 billion over the next 10 years linking Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan and Shanxi.