Ningbo Zhoushan Port photographed by Tang Jiankai

Recently, the Ministry of Transport released the first batch of typical examples in chain upgrading and reinforcing for national comprehensive freight hubs, and 18 typical examples were selected nationwide, among which Ningbo and Jinhua have been listed with two innovative practices of “creating Jinyi ‘Sixth Port Area’ of Ningbo Zhoushan Port” and “applying the sea-railway intermodal transportation bill of lading (CCA) as the carrier to promote the ‘one-order system’ of sea-railway intermodal transportation”.

Jinyi “Sixth Port Area” of Ningbo Zhoushan Port is essentially a strong union of two “world firsts”. The annual cargo throughput of Ningbo Zhoushan Port has been ranked the first in the world for 16 years. Jinhua Yiwu is the largest distribution center of small commodities in the world, and its express delivery business volume ranks first in China. It is reported that 85% of Jinhua’s goods source needs to be exported from Ningbo Zhoushan Port. The two places have close industrial connection and strong transportation demand. However, under the traditional mode, there are problems such as low customs clearance efficiency and high logistics cost.

In order to break the bottleneck of inland foreign trade and expand the hub economy, Jinyi “Sixth Port Area” of Ningbo Zhoushan Port emerged as the times require.

The so-called “Sixth Port Area” refers to an inland port area-Jinhua-Yiwu Port, which is far away from the wharf berths, besides the five container port areas of Beilun, Chuanshan, Meishan, Daxie and Jintang of Ningbo Zhoushan Port. As the “departure port” and “destination port” of international trade, this port area promotes the extension of the seaport function of Ningbo-Zhoushan Port into an inland port.

And the practice of “one-order system” for sea-railway intermodal transport is also a further deepening of the functions of the “Sixth Port Area”. Jinhua and Ningbo explored and innovated the “one-order system” of intermodal transport by promoting the interconnection of intermodal transport information, unified the entire transportation responsibility to a single carrier by taking the bill of lading of sea-rail transport as the carrier, and created the whole-course logistics mode of “one-time entrustment, one quotation, one order to the end, and one bill settlement”, so as to simplify the process and reduce the comprehensive logistics cost by more than 30%.

The practice of Jinyi “Sixth Port Area” of Ningbo Zhoushan Port not only reshapes the regional logistics pattern, but also provides strong support for aligning with the “Belt and Road Initiative” and national strategies such as Yangtze River Economic Belt and Yangtze River Delta Integration with the port’s “hardcore” strength. (Reporter Zhang Kaikai)