[photopress:shanghai.jpg,full,alignright]The trade that passes through Shanghai’s port is mostly regional in nature. It would like that changed, please. Shanghai is keen on becoming a key port for international cargo in the next five to 10 years.
So it is developing plans to speed up export rebates and create an offshore financial center and other good things to bring its shipping services up to world-class standards.
The physical infrastructure of its shipping industry is already pretty solid. Shanghai is already the world’s busiest port in terms of total cargo volume and No. 3 in container traffic.
The hardware is right, the software needs improving. That is the neat image advanced by Xu Peixing, director of the Shanghai Port Administrative Bureau. He said, ‘To sharpen the competitiveness of Shanghai port we must greatly improve its software, meaning its functions as an international shipping hub, with support services in finance, insurance, maritime arbitration and other areas.’
Shanghai is trying to get approval to allow exporters to receive tax rebates the moment their ships leave a domestic port if the cargo is headed for Shanghai’s new Yangshan Deep-Water Port. The city now refunds export taxes as soon as domestic freight arrives at Yangshan.
Shanghai will also lobby the central government to further open the country’s shipping industry to foreign investors, eliminating restrictions on establishing shipping agents and lowering thresholds for foreign firms seeking to invest in international marine companies and affiliated marine services.
Shanghai is expected to handle 500 million tons of seaborne cargo this year, up from 443 million tons last year, when it beat Singapore to become the busiest port in the world.
Shanghai was the world’s third-biggest container port last year, handling 18.08 million boxes, following Singapore and Hong Kong. It expects to be the world’s biggest container port in 2010, moving about 30 million boxes.
Odd note: The illustration, which has been left large on purpose, came from an apparently defunct site called Japan Focus. It definitely is the port of Shanghai but that is a lorcha with its sails somewhat worn. And the shipping looks perhaps a little dated. So when was the picture taken?
Spurce: Shanghai Daily
