The Chishui Port in Wuzhou, located along the Xijiang River, has long had to divert most of its foreign trade goods eastward around the Pearl River Delta, resulting in complicated transit and increased logistics costs for enterprises. With the opening of the Pinglu Canal bringing new opportunities, this channel connecting inland rivers and oceans has finally opened up new exports for foreign trade sources from Guidong and Xiangnan to head south to ASEAN. China Airlines' 900 ship, loaded with Hezhou particleboard, successfully set sail, marking the official landing of this river sea intermodal route. Inland enterprises no longer need to follow the old path, and a more time-saving and cost-effective foreign trade channel has been formed.

New channel pattern

On November 6, 2026, China Airlines' 900 ship departed from the North Port Xijiang Port of Wuzhou Chishui Port under the Beibu Gulf Port Group, carrying Hezhou particleboard. The Guangxi Wuzhou Pinglu Canal Vietnam Ho Chi Minh foreign trade route was officially opened, marking Wuzhou's first shipment of foreign trade goods through the Pinglu Canal. The landing of the air route is an important practice in implementing the construction of the Western Land Sea New Corridor and promoting the linkage between the two bays. It connects the hinterland of the Xijiang River directly to the ASEAN market through the Yangtze River and the sea channel, changing the original pattern of Wuzhou's foreign trade solely going eastward.

Logistics advantages are sufficient

Compared to the traditional route of circumnavigating the Pearl River Delta, the new route has obvious advantages, reducing the comprehensive logistics cost of a single container by about 10%, streamlining the transit process, and improving the efficiency of cargo turnover. The route brings the southern Hunan region of Hezhou in Guidong closer to ASEAN countries such as Vietnam, enhancing the competitiveness of local specialty products such as sheet metal manufacturing in going global. This provides strong support for stabilizing the regional foreign trade scale and continuously optimizing the foreign trade structure.

Strong development momentum

Next, Beigang Xijiang Port and Chishui Port will seize the opportunity of the construction of the Pinglu Canal Economic Belt, continue to leverage the port's location advantages, deepen the coordination and docking with industrial logistics service providers in the hinterland of customs and shipping enterprises, continuously improve the collection and distribution supporting facilities for the Pinglu Canal direction, continue to cultivate foreign trade routes, explore sources of goods, attract more industrial sources of goods to gather, and continuously empower the high-quality development of the Pinglu Canal Economic Belt and the improvement of the quality and efficiency of the western land sea new channel. Keywords: River Sea Intermodal Transport, port logistics, Western Land Sea New Corridor

A new air route connecting the Xijiang River, Pinglu Canal, and ASEAN seaports. The navigation benefits of the Pinglu Canal are gradually being transformed into tangible competitiveness for foreign trade in the hinterland. The network of the Western Land Sea New Corridor continues to weave tightly, and inland areas are no longer limited by traditional sea routes. More and more characteristic products from the hinterland can enter the Southeast Asian market at low cost and high efficiency. The connectivity vitality of port and shipping logistics will also continue to drive industries and foreign trade along the route steadily forward.Editor/Li Xiaohua