On a global scale, more than 80% of international trade is achieved by sea transport, and sea transport is the "major artery" of China's foreign trade. The "China Port Operation Analysis Report (2024)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") shows that in 2023, driven by factors such as the recovery of foreign trade demand and the reshaping of the global trade system, China's foreign trade maritime scale has grown rapidly, and the foreign trade throughput of the country's coastal ports has reached 4.96 billion tons, an increase of 9.6%.
Goods are the blood that flows in the "great arteries." From the perspective of cargo types, containers, coal, metal ores, mining materials and petroleum and products are the five main cargo types of China's coastal ports. In 2023, this cargo throughput will account for 84% of the total throughput of coastal ports. Among them, the throughput of imported coal and imported crude oil increased rapidly, and the throughput of imported iron ore remained high.
With the rapid growth of the scale, the structure of foreign trade shipping is also continuously optimized.
Structural optimization is reflected in the continuous improvement of bulk energy and raw material throughput. Driven by factors such as the recovery of demand in the domestic petrochemical industry and the rapid growth of crude oil processing volume, the import volume of foreign crude oil in China's coastal ports has increased significantly year-on-year. According to the report, the import volume of foreign crude oil in 2023 increased by 13% year-on-year, hitting a new high. In addition, in 2023, the volume of foreign trade ore imported from coastal ports across the country increased by 5% year-on-year.
At the same time, the coastal port handling capacity is also improved. Yingkou Port, located in the middle of Liaodong Peninsula, has built 56 berths above 10,000 tons, including 300,000 tons of ore berths and 300,000 tons of crude oil berths. Not long ago, the three berths in Xianren Island Port area of Yingkou Port successfully passed the official acceptance, making the number of berths open to the outside world of Yingkou Port reach 66, and realizing that all the berths that have been built should be fully opened.
Structural optimization is also reflected in the increase in the proportion of container sea traffic. In 2023, container shipping accounted for 23.3% of China's foreign trade seaboards, an increase of 0.2 percentage points over the previous year, maintaining a year-on-year growth trend. Yiwu small commodities, around the European Cup, new energy vehicles... Nowadays, in China's major coastal ports, with the continuous upgrading of port customs clearance services, it is increasingly convenient for containers to "go to sea".
