Excerpt from: China Supply Chain and Logistics Strategy
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| November 23, 2005 | | Lack of Rail Facilities | Article written by Paul French
at China Business InfoCenter
There is no doubt that the Yangshan Deepwater Port offshore from Shanghai is an impressive feat of construction as is the 32 km bridge that supports a six-lane highway and connects the port to the mainland. Nothing new really, we all know Communist countries can do impressive feats of construction. But will it ever live up to its promises?
The executive decision taken by Shanghai that all Euro-Asia routes will have to use Yangshan ensures that it will be running at 80%+ capacity in its first year of operation. So much for a ports market then. Do European shipping lines want to use Yangshan? Who cares, they have to. One representative of a major Scandinavian shipping line told me that despite losing his hair over the project at least his Chinese had improved - he now regularly employed the phrase mei banfa (it's no use).
Another problem appears to be the complete lack of a rail link to Yangshan - this has some European shippers and freight forwarders somewhat bemused. Yangshan officials are unclear on whether a rail freight link will appear or not at some time in the future. Apparently it all comes down to the Ministry of Railways. Anyone who has dealt with the MoR will know that it is the sleepiest and most slow moving of ministries - the bamboo stuffed Panda of government departments.
A rail system would generally be considered a fairly major intermodal transport link to a container port. When the rail-less port gets going it will be handling perhaps 2.2 million teus. A six-lane highway cannot handle this.
In a decades time Yangshan could be handling 22 million teus across 50 berths. That's some traffic jam if no rail line goes in.
Of course the projections for container freight rates between 2006 and 2008 indicate that things may be calmer at Yangshan - it will open right at the start of a widely expected slump. So stop worrying and learn to love the Yangshan - mei banfa. | | |
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