China’s Qinzhou port in the Beibu Gulf which is hoping to increase container volumes, is widening its shipping channel to accommodate larger container ships.
The Qinzhou Port East Channel expansion project aims to make the port a gateway into Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in western China, by adapting to the increasing size of container ships. It is hoped that the expansion of the channel will achieve annual container throughputs of 10 million TEU.
Launched in July, Phase I of the project will see the channel deepened to 16.3m and widened to 23.34km, with a total investment of CNY3.4 billion (US$492.3 million).
This phase is expected to be completed in June 2021, after which vessels of up to 200,000gt can be accommodated.
While Covid-19 means the project faces challenges in terms of attracting more container volumes, the Beibu Gulf Office is dedicating considerable resources to the developments. These include developing logistics links to Southeast Asia and signing collaboration deals with operator Zhonggu Shipping Group to launch more routes and develop container facilities.
In the first half of this year Qinzhou’s container throughput totalled 2.13 million TEU, up from 1.27 million TEU on last year’s volumes.
On 29 July, the port welcomed its first post-Panamax ship when the 10,000TEU COSCO Taicang arrived from Hai Phong, Vietnam.
The Beibu Gulf Rim, also known as Gulf of Tonkin Economic Belt, is in China’s southwestern coastal region around the Gulf of Tonkin. The region is part of the Chinese government’s “Go West” strategy, to boost its less developed western regions.
The “Go West” campaign, has resulted in many construction projects in cities on the Beibu Gulf, especially in Guangxi, becoming a highlight of China-ASEAN cooperation, particularly with Vietnam. It covers Guangdong, Hainan and Guangxi, and northern and central Vietnam.
Martina Li
Asia Correspondent
