On the morning of October 17, 2026, a fully loaded inland cargo ship smoothly passed through the locks along the Pinglu Canal. With the last cargo ship successfully passing through the Ma Dao Hub, the first national coordinated construction of the Tongjiang Dahai Canal since the founding of the People's Republic of China officially entered a milestone moment with a cumulative cargo volume exceeding one million tons after navigation. The backbone logistics artery of the Western Land Sea New Channel began to release vitality at full speed.

The freight operation pace in the first month of navigation exceeded expectations

On September 16, 2026, the Pinglu Canal was officially completed and opened for navigation. In just 32 days, the accumulated cargo volume of the canal successfully exceeded the 1 million ton mark. At around 9:00 am on October 17, the 6688 ship of Guigang Haitong smoothly sailed out of the Ma Dao hub, becoming a landmark vessel that pushed the total cargo volume to cross the threshold of one million tons. The entire process from official operation to exceeding one million in freight volume took less than a month and a half, far exceeding the industry's previous expectations for freight growth from the newly opened canal.

During the National Day holiday in October 2026, the highest daily throughput of river ships and cargo entering and leaving Qinzhou Port via the Pinglu Canal reached 67800 tons, setting a new peak in daily traffic volume since navigation began. Multiple berths completed parallel joint operations of river ship unloading and sea ship loading for the first time, and the efficiency of port intermodal transportation increased by nearly 30% compared to the initial stage of navigation. Nanning Port, which belongs to Beigang Xijiang Port, completed a cargo throughput of over 668000 tons in September 2026, directly breaking the historical record for the highest monthly throughput since the establishment of the port.

Channel economy dividends continue to spread throughout the entire industry chain

The Pinglu Canal has a total length of 134.2 kilometers and is designed to accommodate 5000 ton ships according to the Class I standard for inland waterways. Goods from the southwest region can be shipped out through the canal, reducing the inland waterway distance by more than 560 kilometers and lowering the overall logistics cost by 18% to 30%. The latest statistics from October 2026 show that the ships currently passing through the canal cover multiple categories such as bulk cargo, containers, and special goods, and the route network has extended to several coastal ports in ASEAN. Keywords: Western Land Sea New Channel, Inland River Shipping

As of mid October 2026, 13 berths on the sea side of the Pinglu Canal have undergone adaptive transformation, with an added river sea intermodal throughput capacity of approximately 32 million tons. The transformation project of the transfer station in the Liujing Port Area of Nanning Port has also been fully completed, and the infrastructure network adapted to the navigation standards of the canal has been basically formed. The dividends of the canal are rapidly spreading from the shipping sector to the upstream and downstream industrial chains such as manufacturing and trade. The former inland river terminals are accelerating their transformation into a river sea intermodal hub connecting Southwest China and ASEAN.Editor/Cheng Liting