Belt & Road, Euroports spur growth at city ports

Zhuhai Port Holdings Group reports that container throughput grew by 46.68 percent to 621,700 TEUs in the first four months of this year, becoming one of the top performers among 24 coastal ports nationwide.

Cargo-handling capacity stood at 37.88 million tons, an increase of 65.47 percent over the same period last year.

Zhuhai Port with piles of containers 

Ports are crucial in supporting Zhuhai's open-door to the outside world. Last year, the Gaolan Port Southeast Asia International Route added shipping transfer destinations in Singapore, Belawan in Indonesia, and Yangon in Myanmar. In March, Zhuhai Port opened the fastest nonstop shipping route from Gaolan Port to South Pacific islands, expanding new continental markets with a logistics channel to the Belt & Road Initiative regions. 

The group also further strengthened cooperation with shipping companies to increase the number of coastwise routes to over 50. These include the Gaolan-Quanzhou and Gaolan-Qinzhou lines initiated in the first four months, which completed the port service network. The group chairman, Ou Huisheng, said they are planning to open more medium- to short-sea shipping routes, establish representative offices in Vietnam and Thailand, open more shipping lines covering the Belt & Road areas, and assemble more high-quality supply of goods.

Zhuhai Port [Photos courtesy Zhuhai Daily]

Zhuhai Port Holdings Group started a new era of cooperation with global-leading pulp logistics service corporation Euroports from the Netherlands last year. They jointly built and operated the Gaolan Euroports Logistic Distribution Center, filling in gaps in the field in South China. Euroports has realized pulp throughput over 210,000 tons at Gaolan Port in the first four months, increasing by 259 percent year on year.

In April, groundbreaking was held for the distribution center first phase. Ou said that based on the good start of cooperation, more such work will be done to bring in Euroports' other superior cargo categories and enhance Zhuhai Port's international influence utilizing logistics network advantages of Euroports.