Recently, 8 export containers containing industrial equipment marked with “Made in the Greater Bay Area”, after going through customs clearance procedures, have been transported from the Sanshui Port in Foshan to the Nansha Port Area of Guangzhou Port via the inland river by means of “Greater Bay Area Inter-port Transport”, and then loaded onto international container ships and shipped overseas. This is the 40,000th shipment of goods imported/exported through the Nansha Port Area in this way after two years of “Greater Bay Area Inter-port Transport”. By the end of October of this year, a total of 14 sea routes had been opened for “Greater Bay Area Inter-port Transport”, which had shortened the average cargo storage period to 2 days from the original 7 days, thereby saving total costs by at least 50 million yuan for import and export enterprises.

It is reported that Guangzhou Customs and Guangzhou Port Group officially launched the “Greater Bay Area Inter-port Transport” on November 5, 2020. Connections between inland terminals on the Pearl River and coastal ports, such as Nansha Port, have been strengthened, and the customs clearance efficiency of import and export goods in the Greater Bay Area has been continuously improved. This model takes Nansha Port Area of Guangzhou Port as the hub port and the port along the inland river in the Pearl River Waters as the feeder port, forming the operation mode of “two ports working like one” to realize “one-stop declaration, inspection and release” of import and export goods, and to simplify the formalities at the coastal ports. Import and export goods complete customs clearance procedures at the inland river terminal of the Pearl River, and “7×24” hours non-stop transfer through Nansha Port Area.

The responsible person from Department of Port Control of Guangzhou Customs said, “With the support of whole-process information means, import and export enterprises can have a more accurate grasp of all links of cargo clearance, and dynamically and scientifically arrange the shipping schedules and spaces, so as to reduce the cost of time and expenses caused by the change of shipping schedules and spaces due to transportation. At present, import and export goods through the ‘Greater Bay Area Inter-port Transport’ are increasing, with a year-on-year increase of 343% in the first ten months of this year.”

“Under the ‘Greater Bay Area Inter-port Transport’, barge companies will be able to achieve mutual recognition of terminals, barges and customers at the two ports by only filing one document, which will also significantly increase the operating time and load capacity of barges.” The person in charge of the Shuttle Barge Operation Center of Guangzhou Port said that in the past when transferred at the inland river, customers generally chose to go through the formalities on the day of shipment, and after the barge arrived at the port, it needed to wait for the cargo declaration and release before it could be loaded. Goods exported under the “Greater Bay Area Inter-port Transport”, however, can be deposited at the port of departure after declaration and loaded by barge upon arrival.

For large enterprises, if the “Greater Bay Area Inter-port Transport” is adopted, goods can be directly declared and stored at the terminal after being released from the warehouses, relieving the inventory pressure of the warehouses by about 20%. In addition, companies generally choose to ship their goods to Nansha Port 5-7 days in advance, as it is difficult for them to estimate the time for cargo transportation and customs clearance before the shipment. However, the goods under the “Greater Bay Area Inter-port Transport” can be directly loaded onto international liners for export upon arrival at Nansha Hub Port. Generally, enterprises only need to arrange for their goods to arrive at Nansha Port 2 days before the arrival of international liners, which greatly saves the time of waiting for international liners at Nansha Port.

The State Council issued the Master Plan of Guangzhou Nansha on Deepening Comprehensive Cooperation Between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao with Global Perspective. Guangzhou Customs issued 48 detailed measures in four aspects: facilitate the flow of elements, promote the development of platforms, support enterprises to “go global” and strengthen the convergence of rules, helping Nansha build a high-level opening platform to the outside world. In the perspective of supporting Nansha to enhance its function as an international shipping logistics hub, the application scope and operation approach of the “Greater Bay Area Inter-port Transport” for imports will be specified, to further improve the efficiency of logistics clearance and enable enterprises to enjoy the dividends of the logistics integration reform in the Greater Bay Area.

At present, as a matter of regional customs clearance facilitation reform, the “Greater Bay Area Inter-port Transport” has been included into the Opinions of the State Council for Implementing the Pilot Program of Business Environment Innovation, covering 14 ports along the Pearl River in Guangzhou, Foshan, Zhongshan,etc.  (Source: Guangzhou Daily; Guangzhou Nansha News)