On June 1, the “YANTIAN-Dongguan Port Alliance & Bay Area Express Service” Promotional Event was jointly held by YANTIAN and Dongguan Bay Area Express Group in Houjie Town, Dongguan City. Representatives from government departments, about 30 enterprises (shippers) from Dongguan, and over 10 shipping lines attended the event.

The port alliance further promotes the interconnection of port clusters in the Greater Bay Area, stabilising the economy, supply chain, and industry chain

In order to help international trade enterprises overcome difficulties and challenges and ensure the high-quality development of the international trade, the General Office of the State Council issued Opinions on Stabilizing and Promoting the High-quality Development of the International Trade, which required to smooth goods transportation and distribution to improve the operational and customs clearance efficiency. Previously, the 14th Five-Year Plan of Comprehensive Transport Services issued by the Ministry of Transport has already clearly proposed to improve the proportion of water transshipment.

Under the guidance of national policies, YANTIAN has launched measures to leverage Shenzhen’s role as a port-based national logistics hub. With the strong support of governments at all levels, customs and other supervisory authorities, YANTIAN launched the YANTIAN-Dongguan Port Alliance in February this year. It is an important part of YANTIAN’s business layout in the Pearl River Delta, which extends YANTIAN’s port services to Dongguan, benefiting manufacturers of the region and facilitating the products of Dongdong to go global.

With the port alliance, enterprises in Dongguan can enjoy the convenient "one-time declaration" service. In addition, customers can also enjoy "priority inspection" at home to quickly complete the appointment, inspection, and release procedures, shortening the overall clearance time by more than 24 hours, significantly saving logistics costs, and achieving energy saving and emission reduction.

Launch port alliances in the Greater Bay Area to develop intermodal transportation

The Port Alliance Project in the Greater Bay Area, which is supported by the Shenzhen Customs and relevant government departments, is a key project to promote port development, and smooth logistics flows in the Greater Bay Area. It is also an important measure to accelerate the development of Shenzhen Port. With a series of facilitation measures in customs clearance, inspection and logistics, cargo will be inspected and cleared at the local customs, and then be sent to Yantian Port via feeders, effectively mitigating stacking and customs inspection pressure in the port area, and shortening the overall waiting time for cargo transfer. The diversified transportation methods allow enterprises to enjoy the convenience brought by Yantian Port's extensive shipping network and its advantages as a container hub, further reducing the logistics costs.

With the strong support of Shenzhen Customs and Huangpu Customs, YANTIAN-Dongguan Port Alliance was launched. In order to stabilise the supply chain and industry chain of the international trade and fully support Hong Kong in the epidemic, YANTIAN continued to allocate more dedicated berths and other resources, and enhance the capacity of feeder services. Its feeder throughput continued to grow and reached new record high in terms of monthly volume in April and May. From January to May this year, the feeder throughput increased by 18% year-on-year.

Du Xuemin, Chairperson of the People's Congress of Houjie Town, Dongguan City, said, "The YANTIAN-Dongguan Port Alliance seamlessly connects the Dongguan Port and Yantian Port, solving the pain points in waterway transportation for enterprises. This promotional event serves as a bridge for communication among the exporters of our town and Dongguan Port and YANTIAN. It also offers many innovative logistics solutions for our enterprises, enabling them to find the right logistics channel and enjoy the high-quality supply chain services."

Neville Lam, General Manager - Commercial of Hutchison Ports Yantian, said, "YANTIAN is located at the core of the Greater Bay Area and is a major port in the Pearl River Delta region. The YANTIAN-Dongguan Port Alliance is an important part of YANTIAN’s business layout in the Greater Bay Area, and we will continue to ensure the stability of the international supply chain, strengthen the interconnection between the hub port and the river ports to build an efficient and convenient logistics gateway."

Lian Zekai, Chairperson of Dongguan Bay Express Group, said, "Yantian Port has extensive shipping services covering most of the major ports in Europe and America, and is an important gateway for exporters of Dongguan and its surrounding region. With the YANTIAN-Dongguan Port Alliance, enterprises in Dongguan can substantially save logistics costs and improve import and export efficiency."

Luo Qi, Director of Customs Affairs of Dongguan Gangwan Innovation Supply Chain Co., Ltd., said, "Through the port alliance, we can effectively alleviate the pressure of land transportation, ensure the timely export of IKEA's goods, and save additional costs arising from delay and changing ships."

In the future, YANTIAN will continue to establish more port alliances with ports of the Pearl River Delta in the Greater Bay Area with the support of customs, and develop intermodal transportation, enabling more customers to enjoy convenient transportation services, and better serving the high-quality economic development in the Greater Bay Area together with its partners.