On July 21, at the container yard of the Yiwu Railway Port, the Yiwu-Ningbo Zhoushan Port sea-rail intermodal train headed Ningbo loaded with Yiwu-made containers. According to the data provided by the Yiwu Market Development Committee, from January to June of this year a total of 40,204 heavy TEUs were shipped by the Yiwu-Ningbo Zhoushan Port sea-rail intermodal train, a year-on-year increase of 50.78%.

Since the beginning of this year, taking advantage of the construction of the “sixth port area,” the Yiwu-Ningbo Zhoushan Port sea-rail intermodal train has maintained a strong growth momentum, and the cargo agglomeration shows  prominent effect. “Ningbo is an important ‘outlets to the sea’ for Yiwu’s manufacturing. Because of its strong timeliness and stability, we ship dozens of containers through sea-rail combined transportation every month,” said Wang Hongyang, business manager of Zhejiang Yongda International Freight Forwarding Co. He said that these exports Commodities enjoy the integrated convenience brought by the opening of the Yiwu-Ningbo Zhoushan Port and the construction of the “sixth port area.” Some goods entering the Yiwu Port are regarded as entering Yiwu-Ningbo-Zhoushan Port. This realizes the “one declaration, one inspection, one release” mantra, and improves the customs release efficiency for export and lowers transportation costs. Furthermore, sea-rail combined transportation can reduce or exempt a drop-off fee (of about 600 RMB per TEU) for enterprises, which greatly relieves the financial pressure.

COVID-19 has decreased the efficiency of cargo transportation, and logistics in some areas are not as smooth as before. Compared with sea and air transportation, railway freight has a high degree of mechanization and cannot achieve direct contact between people. The sea-rail combined transport channel has undertaken the important task of transporting the goods of foreign trade import and export enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta region during the pandemic.

At present, Yiwu is strengthening strategic cooperation and deepening integration with Ningbo and Zhoushan to jointly build the “sixth port area.” The Yiwu Market Development Committee mentioned that in order to speed up the process of sea-rail port integration, they visited Hangzhou and Ningbo many times to conduct in-depth communication with Hangzhou Customs, the Provincial Seaport Group, the Ningbo Port Office, and Ningbo Customs to win their support in constructing the “sixth port area.” A series of breakthroughs have been made with the support of construction and when promoting the integration of customs affairs, port affairs, and shipping affairs. (By Wu Fengyu, translated by Zhang Jiajia, edited by Daniel Haws)