Shanghai Port has exported ship berthing technology, and advanced solutions have benefited Africa; Hainan Yangpu Port has released dividends from island-wide customs closure operations, and the route network has become denser; In the first year of the "15th Five-Year Plan", my country's door to opening up is opening wider and wider.
Shanghai Port
Improve plans and improve pilotage efficiency
In the early morning, in the waters of Gaoqiao outside Shanghai Port, young pilot Yang Fan stood on the bridge of the "Han Xin Fengnian" ship, giving precise instructions and guiding the cooperation of master Zhou Hongwen to lead the ship to berth.
Zhou Hongwen said: "When I joined the company in 1992, the annual container throughput of Shanghai Port was less than 1 million TEUs. Now it exceeds 5 million in a single month, and the annual container throughput has ranked first in the world for 16 consecutive years."
While talking, the "Han Xin Fengnian" wheel docked smoothly.
“Everyone worked together to improve the plan and improve pilotage efficiency,” Yang Fan said.
Zhou Hongwen's thoughts went back to the beginning of 2025, just after the Spring Festival, when a group of pilots from Ghana, Africa, went to Shanghai for training. Participating in the high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road", Zhou Hongwen taught two groups of Ghanaian pilots in 2025, promoting Shanghai Port's advanced solutions to Africa and improving local piloting skills and service levels. At present, Ghanaian pilots can pilot 300,000-ton ore ships entering and leaving the port.
"Our plans and experiences are increasingly becoming international models." Zhou Hongwen is full of pride. "We must continue to innovate to bring goods and people together at home and abroad."
In the first two months of this year, Shanghai Port pilots completed a total of 11,758 pilot missions.
Hainan Yangpu Port
From waiting for the boat to arrive, to catching the boat
The giant arm of the 100-meter-high quay crane grabs various containers; the driving trajectories of electric trucks are intertwined into a network on the screen… In the early morning at Hainan Yangpu International Container Terminal, the operation site is as bright as day.
Dai Jinwei, the on-site duty manager of the production operation center of Hainan Port International Port Co., Ltd., stared closely at the ship operation scene on the screen, and the dispatch instructions on the intercom came one after another. Which operation line is more efficient? Which yard has smoother circulation? This all requires his judgment.
"In the past, in the Haikou port area, we stared at the ships; when we came to Yangpu, we stared at the 'lines'." In March 2025, due to the surge in business volume in Yangpu, Dai Jinwei came here to support. The "line" he mentioned is exactly the "first line" that must be released after the Hainan Free Trade Port's island-wide customs sealing operation and the "second line" that must be controlled.
"This is the 'second line' dedicated cargo channel." Pointing to the busy gates No. 6 and 7 under surveillance, Dai Jinwei said that a large amount of inbound grain, oil, and meat are processed in Hainan and then sold to the mainland. Supervision must keep up – vehicles take specific routes, drop boxes, randomly inspect, unlock, and release. If one link is disconnected, it will cause congestion.
"There has been a big change from waiting for the ship to arrive and catching the ship." Dai Jinwei said, especially since the island-wide customs closure was implemented on December 18 last year, policy dividends have been released, the route network has become denser and denser, and more and more "big guys" are berthing, which has brought new challenges to the port operation model.
Data show that from the launch of the island-wide customs closure to February 23, 6,741 ships entered and exited Yangpu Port, including 3,040 ships entering and exiting the port.
The east is white, Dai Jinwei closes the shift record book, and looks out the window at the deeper blue, where the increasingly dense routes are extending towards the world.
Xinjiang Horgos Highway Port
Mechanism innovation, smart customs clearance and less waiting
In the early morning, at the centralized inspection site of the Horgos Highway Port in Xinjiang, a group of new energy vehicles and pickup trucks lined up neatly waiting to be exported from the port. The front windshield of each vehicle was affixed with an exclusive QR code generated by the "single window".
Zhang Yang, chief of the No. 1 Customs Supervision Section in Horgos, walked to the vehicle to be inspected and scanned the QR code. The frame number, electronic manifest and other information immediately popped up. He wiped off the snow on the frame number, checked that it was correct, and signaled to raise the pole to release. "In the past, one car had one card, and the procedures were cumbersome. During the '14th Five-Year Plan' period, we implemented the 'highway port + territorial direct connection' reform, innovated one-code access, and intelligent card checkpoint automatic identification, greatly improving customs clearance efficiency."
"Customers are waiting for the registration of these 150 cars exported to Kazakhstan. Now the customs is very efficient, and it only takes a few minutes to scan the code. Last year, we sent more than 9,000 cars from the port, and this year is expected to increase." said Liang Hao, business manager of Horgos Haocheng International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd.
At 10 a.m., at the green channel for rapid customs clearance of agricultural and sideline products from China and Kazakhstan, three fruit and vegetable trucks, covered with a thin layer of frost, stopped one after another. The owner of the cargo, Ma Ming, rolled down the window and handed over the declaration form: "This truck contains 60 tons of fresh fruits and vegetables, mixed with rock candy heart apples and fragrant pears. The supermarket in Kazakhstan is waiting for replenishment. Please inspect and release it as soon as possible." Zhang Yang took the declaration form and quickly operated on the mobile terminal with his fingertips. He glanced at the intact green lock seal of the carriage and quickly completed the inspection and release. "Don't worry, the green channel for agricultural and sideline products has a special window and a special post. The fruits picked in the morning can be released in the afternoon."
Ma Ming nodded, collected the receipt, and thanked him with a smile: "After completing the formalities in about ten minutes, we can arrive in Almaty on the same day without any delay. The sales of the company's fruits and vegetables have been getting better and better in recent years."
The midday sun finally penetrated the morning fog and poured onto the busy port. In 2025, the Horgos Highway Port will supervise 450,000 exported commercial vehicles, making it the largest land port for automobile exports in my country. The annual export volume of fruits and vegetables was 681,000 tons, a year-on-year increase of 44.3%. With the help of "24-hour customs clearance + green channel", "picking in the morning, leaving customs in the afternoon, and going on the market the next day" was achieved, seizing the opportunity in the Central Asian market.
(Coordinator of this issue: He Biao)
