Recently, Guangzhou Port Group and Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement to jointly promote the “Huadu-Nansha” green, low-carbon and cost-effective logistics model, support the improvement of quality and efficiency of the automobile industry in Huadu District, and promote the high-quality development of Pearl River inland shipping. Guangzhou Port will open up the “Huadu-Nansha” water transportation channel of commercial vehicles to provide a new model of container concentration via barges for enterprises represented by Dongfeng Nissan in Huadu District. Dongfeng Nissan has played a leading role as a pioneer and advocate of environmental protection in the industry to support Guangzhou Port in expanding its new model of container concentration via barges and fostering ro/ro route operations.

Li Xiaodong, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and Mayor of Huadu District, Chen Weiwen, Vice Chairman of the CPPCC and Director of the Bureau of Industry and Information Technology of Huadu District, Yang Yulong, Head of the Manufacturing Headquarters of Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company, Huang Bo, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and General Manager of Guangzhou Port Group, and Deng Guosheng, Secretary of the Party Committee and General Manager of Guangzhou Port Co., Ltd., witnessed the signing. Li Shaoxin, Director of the Supply Chain Management Department of the Manufacturing Headquarters of Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company, and Ma Jinqi, Deputy General Manager of Guangzhou Port Co., Ltd., signed the contract on behalf of both parties.

It is learned that Huadu District is the main production base of Guangzhou's automobile industry, with more than 600,000 vehicles rolling off the assembly line every year. In recent years, Guangzhou Port Group and Dongfeng Nissan have maintained a good cooperative relationship. Through this cooperation project, both parties will jointly help build Huadu District into the most internationally competitive automobile industry base.

Since 2020, in accordance with relevant provincial and municipal work arrangements, Guangzhou Port Group has actively promoted joint investment and cooperation between state-owned ports and terminals under the jurisdiction of the city and district; in addition, under the guidance and support of the Huadu District Government, it has effectively promoted the resource integration of Huadu Port, and has a controlling stake in Guangzhou Huadu Port Freight Joint Venture Co., Ltd. At the same time, in order to strengthen the connection between the ro/ro hub - Nansha Port Area of Guangzhou Port and the inland river port area, and give full play to the advantages of Huadu Port’s proximity to the automobile base in Huadu District, Guangzhou Port Group started the building of inland river ro/ro ships in March 2021, which is scheduled to be put into operation at the end of the year, aiming to create a quality route of “Huadu-Nansha” ro/ro barges, reduce the companies’ overall logistics costs and environmental protection pressure, enhance their comprehensive competitiveness, and promote the expansion of Huadu Port’s ro/ro automobile business and the stable development of the automobile industry in Huadu District.

Guangzhou Port Group’s ro/ro business started in the 1990s, which was the first port in China to obtain the qualification for the import of complete vehicles. Since the launch of the dedicated ro/ro berths of Xinsha Company in December 2004, it has successively made deployment in Nansha, forming a business structure of two-way mutual assistance between the east and the west coasts. In 2020, Guangzhou Port Group completed the handling of 1.501 million ro/ro vehicles, the only one among the coastal ro/ro terminals in China to achieve both domestic and foreign trade growth. From January to October 2021, Guangzhou Port Group completed the handling of more than 1.2 million ro/ro commercial vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 5.7%, of which foreign trade vehicles increased by 30.1% on a year-on-year basis. After Jinyang Terminal is put into operation in 2022, Nansha Port will further form a large-scale ro/ro terminal cluster with 7 professional ro/ro berths, an annual handling capacity is more than 2 million vehicles, and a storage area is more than 1.6 million square meters. (Text by Han Jiankun and Zou Jingqi, Picture by Zhu Junkun)