To support Guangzhou Port in reducing customers' comprehensive logistics costs by improving its bulk cargo receiving and unloading capacity, the customs, maritime, border inspection, port affairs, pilotage and other authorities attach great importance to it, make special researches on support plans, and comprehensively implement various supporting measures, such as fast approving operation declarations, and safely piloting large ships to anchorages. Under the careful guidance of the Guangzhou Maritime Safety Administration, Guangzhou Port Group, in conjunction with professional organizations, conducted a thorough demonstration and evaluation of the ship’s entry into the Shajiao Anchorage for lightering. During the operation, the shipping company under Guangzhou Port carefully formulated and implemented various plans. The company's leaders led a team to stay on board and closely followed up on the ship's dynamics, communicated with the port, cargo owner, and agent, strengthened the coordination of barge capacity, and provided strong support for the smooth completion of various receiving and unloading tasks with on-site guidance from Huangpu Old Port Customs, Shajiao Maritime Department of Guangzhou Maritime Safety Administration and other units.

 

The successful implementation of the "direct delivery at anchorage " of the 120,000-ton large bulk cargo ship at the Shajiao Anchorage is one of the important measures for Guangzhou Port Group, port units, and port authorities to deeply implement the work deployment requirements of the Guangzhou Municipal Government, and for Guangzhou Port Authority to optimize and upgrade the anchorage functions of Guangzhou Port. It is of great significance for further leveraging the new advantages of anchorage logistics models and reducing the comprehensive logistics costs of enterprises.

 

Since the second half of 2023, Huangpu Customs, in collaboration with Guangzhou Port Group, has launched the "Bulk Cargo Water Terminal of Guangzhou Port + Foreign Trade Direct Delivery at Anchorage" service to address the challenges of low logistics efficiency and high cargo loading and unloading losses in the import of bulk cargo such as energy and strategic mineral resources. This innovative regulatory model integrates customs supervision requirements into the logistics chain, allowing goods to be directly delivered from the port anchorage to the destination enterprise after inspection and release, reducing ship docking time and cargo loading and unloading times, and greatly saving enterprise time and economic costs. After a foreign trade ship arrives at the anchorage, the foreign trade goods are inspected by customs officers on board, and unloaded by a floating crane at the anchorage to lighters, which serve as “mobile warehouses" and wait for release in a designated electronic fence supervision area before the goods are directly transported to the factory for production. This eliminates the two links of unloading and loading at the port, greatly reducing the waiting time for ships entering the port and the number of times for goods lightering.

 

The operation of the “MV MAGSENGER 16” ship has fully verified the feasibility of implementing lightering for 120,000-ton ships at Shajiao Anchorage, effectively improving the capacity level of Shajiao Anchorage for receiving and unloading large ships, and creating favorable conditions for fully leveraging the advantages of water-water transfer and river-sea intermodal transportation and providing customers with an efficient and low-cost service environment. (Text by Shen Guanhua, and Pan Chaojing, Picture by Zhang Jiaoyu)