Recently, more than 60 representatives from well-known domestic and foreign shipping companies gathered at the Haizhou Bay Convention Center on the coast of Haizhou Bay. When Yan Dong, President of Lianyungang Port Holdings Group, and Wang Haijian, Vice President of Shanggang Group, walked up to the stage side by side, a set of numbers -152000 TEUs - popped up on the large screen of the venue. The "Lianshen Express" connecting Shanghai Port and Lianyungang Port has completed a doubling leap from 69000 to 152000 in three years, and the Yangtze River Delta port cluster is moving from geographical proximity to blood connectivity.

Double the annual transportation volume in three years

The transportation volume of "Lianshen Express" will exceed 152000 TEUs in 2025, a year-on-year increase of over 20%, and maintain double-digit growth for three consecutive years, more than doubling from 69000 TEUs in 2022. The operating vessels have been expanded from the initial 3 vessels of 400 TEUs to 4 vessels of 600 TEUs or above, with a stable schedule of 3 to 5 trips per week, achieving simultaneous docking at both Shanghai Waigaoqiao and Yangshan ports. This sea bus, which connects the eastern end of the Longhai Railway with the mouth of the Yangtze River, is seamlessly welding the hinterland of northern Jiangsu and central western China with the global oceanic trunk line.

Four party memorandum to clear regulatory bottlenecks

At the exchange meeting, Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration, Lianyungang Maritime Safety Administration, Shanghai Port Group, and Lianyungang Port officially signed a memorandum of cooperation among the four parties. Four parties are focusing on the pain points of the "new three types" of new energy vehicles, lithium batteries, photovoltaics, and dangerous goods transit industries. With "Lianshen Express" as the core carrier, a cross port regulatory system of "approval at the port of origin and confirmation at the port of transit" is being constructed. The one-stop declaration and one box direct service model will upgrade the physical connection between Shanghai and Lianyungang ports to institutional connectivity. Keywords: Logistics News Network, Maritime Logistics

Strengthening the integration foundation of capital and equity

Shanghai Port Group has completed the acquisition of 18% equity of Lianyungang Port, becoming the second largest shareholder, and the two ports of Shanghai and Lianyungang have moved from business collaboration to capital integration. The joint venture Lianyungang Interconnected Container Company and Interconnected Roll on/Roll off Company operate synchronously, and the Empty Container Alliance gathers six regional yard enterprises to achieve unified resource allocation. Fifteen port and shipping companies have jointly launched a new chapter in multimodal transport, including Xuzhou Port, Suqian Port, Ningbo Ocean Shipping, and others. The benchmark for the coordinated development of the Yangtze River Delta port cluster has taken shape, from a single shipping route to a three-dimensional cooperation system.Editor/Gao Xue