[photopress:logistics_yangtze_river.jpg,full,alignright]David Lammie at Yangtze Business Services provides news of their updated report on Yangtze river ports.
Yangtze container volume increased 38% in 2007 as domestic trade surged. There has been huge spending on transport networks to open up the interior to more inward investment
Container traffic volumes on the Yangtze River surged to a record high of 5.54 million teu — units — in 2007, an increase of 38% over the previous year.
Figures from the Yangtze River Administration under China’s Ministry of Transport show that cargo throughput of the major ports along the Yangtze trunk line stood at 918 million tons, up 16.6% from the previous year.
The report continues: ‘Despite these upward trends, however, the river is a heavily underutilised transport resource. Traffic remains heavily concentrated in the lower reaches where the shipping conditions are better, the local economies are more dynamic and access to the sea is easier. Cargo throughput in the Jiangsu ports up to Nanjing, located just 300km from the sea, accounted for two-thirds of the Yangtze’s total in 2007.
‘By summer 2009 when the Three Gorges Dam is completed, Beijing planners will have realised their ambition of creating an all-year-round shipping channel to allow 10,000 dwt barge fleets to sail from Chongqing to Shanghai — a distance of some 2,500 km — within no more than seven days.
‘Huge sums of money are also being spent to build a Riverside Expressway, a Riverside Highway and a Riverside Railway, all running parallel to the Yangtze and due to open in the next few years. The Riverside Expressway, which will be completed by the end of 2010, will reduce the journey time by car between the two municipalities to around 24 hours.’
Much, much more from Yangtze Transport 2008 which bilingual report was first published in 2006. The second edition, completely updated and revised, is now available. More by clicking HERE.
Source: China Business Services