History of Guangzhou Port

Guangzhou Port is the starting port of the Maritime Silk Road. Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, it has served as the sea-going channel of Lingnan Region and China's most important foreign trade port. Guangzhou Port is also the largest comprehensive port and foreign trade port in South China with a long history. 

In 221 B.C., Guangzhou was built as a city, and the world-famous maritime silk road was roughly established. Guangzhou Port was the prelude to China's foreign trade activities. For more than 2,000 years, both Guangzhou City, a city with thousands of years of commercial cultural heritage, and Guangzhou Port, an ancient port with thousands of years of history, have developed and evolved in complementary ways, and experienced thousand years of prosperity together. 

Since 618 A.D., in advantage of the good weather and geographical location, as mentioned in a Chinese poem "The calm sea, so suitable for ship transportation, the ships from so many countries, going to Guangzhou Port for wealth", Guangzhou promoted its marine transportation sector to an unprecedentedly frequent level. As a port connecting China with Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Arab region, Guangzhou Port has become the largest port in the East. 

In 1757, Guangzhou launched its commercial engagement to the world as a gathering place for merchants and ships. The foreign trade sector represented by the thirteen-trades monopoly reached an unprecedented level of prosperity. 

Ever since 1949, Guangzhou Port has inherited its historic and cultural heritage and kept developing itself into an important driving force for turning Guangzhou into a national central city with economic influence and agglomeration functions and the gateway of South China to the world in the context of economic globalization. 

Location of Guangzhou Port

As a major coastal port and container trunk port in China, Guangzhou Port is a comprehensive hub port with the most complete functions, the largest scale and the widest coverage along the coast of South China. As the main hub port along the coast of China, Guangzhou Port is located in the heart of the Pearl River Delta. The Downtown Port Area, Huangpu Port Area, Xinsha Port Area and Nansha Port Area are distributed from the Pearl River to the sea outlet, providing efficient and perfect port logistics services for the economic development of the Pearl River Delta, Guangdong and South China. 

Status of Guangzhou Port

Guangzhou Port's cargo and container throughput in 2019 continued to rank the 4th place in China and the 5th place in the world. Comparing with the ports in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the capacity of Guangzhou Port has achieved a growth rate under the adverse market environment, and the growth rate of production indicators ranks in the forefront of the major coastal ports in China. Under the development concept of "World-class Port, World-wide Service", the staff of Guangzhou Port are carrying forward the team spirit of "Diligent, Innovative, Competitive, and Dedicated" and providing the best port service to customers all over the world, striving to build Guangzhou Port into an international first-class port operator with reasonable structure, perfect port function, scientific and efficient management, strong comprehensive strength and remarkable economic benefits, thereby making due contributions to China's overall construction of a moderately prosperous society and accelerating the construction of the Greater Bay Area and Guangzhou International Shipping Center. 

Guangzhou Port Authority and Guangzhou Port Group

On February 26, 2004, the former Guangzhou Port Authority separated government functions from operating and management functions, and was restructured to the new Guangzhou Port Authority and Guangzhou Port Group Co., Ltd. Guangzhou Port Group was authorized by the Guangzhou Municipal Government to operate the state-owned assets of the Group. On March 26, 2010, the Guangzhou Municipal Government authorized the Guangzhou State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission to perform investor responsibilities for the Guangzhou Port Group.

Guangzhou Port Group and Guangzhou Port Co., Ltd.

As required by General Secretary Xi Jinping, Guangdong shall strive to rank among the best in China in terms of four major performance indicators. As planned by the CPC Guangzhou Municipal Committee and the municipal government, Guangzhou shall build an international shipping center. Therefore, Guangzhou Port Group has accelerated its corporate reforms and clarified industrial development structure covering port operations, real estate, business & tourism, and aquatic & fisheries and port financial functions. Among them, the port sector is regarded as the core sector of the Group, aiming to developing into an international first-class port operator. Guangzhou Port Co., Ltd., as the main operator under Guangzhou Port Group, is mainly engaged in loading and unloading, warehousing, port management, logistics and port supporting services, construction and installation services, etc. 

On December 28, 2010, Guangzhou Port Group jointly initiated and established Guangzhou Port Co., Ltd. with a registered capital of 5 billion yuan, as its main founding shareholder, jointly with CITIC Traffic Holding Co., Ltd. and Guangzhou Development Group Co., Ltd. In May 2014, Guangzhou Port Co., Ltd. introduced COSCO and Shanghai China Shipping Terminal Development Co., Ltd. as strategic investors through capital increase, with a registered capital of RMB 5.4945 billion. On March 29, 2017, Guangzhou Port Co., Ltd. was listed on the A shares market of Shanghai Stock Exchange and successfully entered into main board market. After listing, the Company has increased its total share capital to 6.193 billion yuan, in which GPG holds 75.72%. 

Guangzhou Port Co., Ltd.