Photo: China Classification Society
Beibu Gulf Port Group has executed a test river-sea trip through the Pinglu Canal, prior to the waterway’s official opening tomorrow.
Two domestic container-and-bulk vessels, Bei Gang Yun He 001 и Bei Gang Yun He 002, which are owned by the port group, carried containers from Guigang city in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region through the canal and on to Qinzhou, the province’s key container port.
Guigang sits on the Xijiang River system that is connected to Pinglu Canal.
Compared with the previous transport method of detouring round the Pearl River Delta in southern China, which took two days, moving through Pinglu Canal takes just two hours.
The containers carried suitcases and building materials and will be transhipped in Qinzhou.
The LNG dual-fuelled Bei Gang Yun He 001 и Bei Gang Yun He 002 are among four demonstration vessels that Beibu Gulf Port Group commissioned at Guangxi Xijiang Heavy Industry for the $11bn Pinglu Canal project that connects Nanning in Guangxi Zhuang to Beibu Gulf, which lies between China and Vietnam.
The canal aims to foster trade between China and its largest trading partner, south-east Asia. Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia can expect to receive more container traffic from China as a result of the project.
The Chinese Communist Party’s secretary of the Huaihua International Land Port Economic Zone, Mr Wang Hua, said: “Pinglu Canal’s opening creates an alternative maritime access route for China’s central and western regions so they won’t rely solely on rail freight.”
Guangxi Guigang Beigang International Container Terminal’s general manager Lin Jie was quoted in local media as saying that the inland river ports in Guangxi Zhuang are set to handle more goods from the southwestern hinterland, as well as imports from south-east Asia.
In addition, Beibu Gulf Port Group has started building five automated container berths in Qinzhou’s Dalanping South area to process cargoes from vessels arriving along the Pinglu Canal.
Draught limits in the canal allow vessels of up to 5,000 dwt (a container capacity of around 255 teu) to transit.
When completed around March 2028, the berths will be able to handle 650,000 teu annually.
The $140m works involve converting a breakwater into a quay and installing five automated ship-to-shore cranes, six automated rail-mounted gantry cranes and 30 intelligent guided vehicles.