A different competitor

The dispute over Northeast Asia's shipping centers has a long history.

Once, Qingdao Port, Tianjin Port, and Dalian Port took turns to battle and competed. However, all the ports in northern China are single-handed, and purely pursue throughput, it is always difficult to form a real competition for the ports of Tokyo in Japan and Busan in South Korea. Now, in this protracted competition for the Northeast Asian shipping center, suddenly broke into a distinctive competitor.

As the most important gateway to the north of China and the bridgehead in Northeast Asia, Shandong has promoted an unprecedented port integration: On August 6, 2019, Shandong Port Group was officially established in Qingdao and distributed in Qingdao Port along the coast of Shandong. The four major ports, Rizhao Port, Yantai Port and Bohai Bay Port will be integrated into one.

According to customs statistics, in 2018, Shandong Port's foreign trade throughput ranked first in the country, accounting for 22% of the country's total, more than one-fifth; handling of iron ore and crude oil accounted for one-fourth of the country; metal ore, dangerous goods Throughput ranks first in the country; container throughput is third in the country, and the total throughput of these four ports is nearly 1.3 billion tons. In comparison, the throughput of South Korea's Busan Port in 2018 was 450 million tons.

In the face of the competition for the international status of the Northeast Asian shipping center, ports in northern China have always been independent and unable to form a joint force. Many domestic ports have chosen to cooperate with South Korean and Japanese ports in order to enhance local competitiveness. Today, Shandong is the first to integrate the resources of major ports in the country, like a giant aircraft carrier formation rejoining this protracted race.

Huo Plateau, Chairman of Shandong Port Group, said: "As a member of the global port and shipping industry, Shandong Port Group is committed to achieving integration from integration to planning The upgrade from 'fusion' to 'coupling' contributes new strength to the development of the global port and shipping industry. "

Just 20 days later, Dagang, just established in Shandong, ushered in policy trends. On August 26, the State Council's official website released the "State Council's Approval for Consent to the Establishment of Six New Free Trade Pilot Areas." Among them, "Promoting Trade Transformation and Upgrading" and "Deepening China-Japan-Korea Regional Economic Cooperation" have been regarded as the primary tasks of the Shandong Pilot Free Trade Zone.

The so-called free trade pilot zone is mainly aimed at trade liberalization and facilitation, and promotes international trade through more relaxed trade policies and lower trade costs.

Judging from the existing free trade zones, this will bring more relaxed and open trade policies to ports, will promote foreign economic and trade exchanges in the region, and will bring significant logistics accumulation effects.

For example, in September 2013, China's first free trade pilot zone, the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, was officially listed in Pudong. According to official data, as of February 2018, there have been 52,000 newly established enterprises in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, and the number of newly established enterprises in the four years is 1.5 times the number of enterprises in the same region in the previous 20 years. The Shanghai Free Trade Zone created a quarter of Shanghai's gross domestic product and 40% of its total foreign trade import and export with an area of one-fifth. At the same time, the container throughput of Shanghai Port continued to soar from more than 30 million TEUs in 2012 to more than 42 million TEUs in 2018, ranking first in the world for many consecutive years.

Similarly, the approval of the Shandong Free Trade Pilot Zone is no different from a shareholder's style for the newly integrated port carrier formation.

On September 4, 2019, South Korean Ambassador to China Zhang Xiacheng made a special trip to Qingdao, China, the largest gathering place for Korean businessmen. The purpose of his visit is to take the opportunity of the 18th Korean-Korean Business Cooperation Conference to promote the stalled trade between China and South Korea under the new free trade test.

All indications indicate that the economic and trade relations between China and South Korea have begun to pick up: The "China (Shandong) Free Trade Pilot Zone General Plan" clearly requires "deepening China-Japan-Korea regional economic cooperation"; previously, the South Korean Business Cooperation Conference selected a site in 2010 Outside Shenyang, China, the other 17 times were held in South Korea. One month after the Shandong Pilot Free Trade Zone was approved, this meeting was specifically held in Qingdao, China.

Attracted by the Shandong Pilot Free Trade Zone, this time with Zhang Xiacheng, there were more than 400 Korean businessmen including LG Electronics, Xijie Group, and SK Group. They signed a contract with China-Korea (Qingdao) Industry Alliance. There are two China-Korea innovation and entrepreneurship platforms, one eco-agricultural science and technology export project, and eight China-Korea investment promotion projects.

Zhang Xiacheng stated that China is the second largest economy in the world and a huge "engine" to promote the development of the world economy. The economic cooperation between South Korea and China has gone through a labor-intensive stage mainly based on processing trade. At this stage, we are now entering the "3.0" stage where we learn from each other and share benefits.

Since last year, China-Japan economic and trade exchanges have also continued to heat up. At the first "Expo", more than 400 Japanese companies formed the largest foreign business group and came to China to "gold". At present, the total GDP of China, Japan and South Korea has exceeded 16 trillion U.S. dollars, surpassing the European Union, accounting for 20.9% of the world and 70% of Asia. Rising engine.

Northeast Asia Shipping Center

The rise of any big port and the birth of an international shipping center have a profound background of historical changes and industrial upheaval. If it was said that Hong Kong was selected as one of the top ten international shipping centers in the world and benefited from the economic development of the Asian "four little dragons" in the last century, Shanghai's later rise was due to the rise of China's manufacturing industry in this century. Today, the newly formed Shandong Port Group is facing the same historical opportunity.

"The approval of the free trade zone will not only bring potential logistics business opportunities to Shandong ports, but more importantly, it will give this region a more relaxed free trade policy, promote the agglomeration of port-based industries, and help Shandong Port Group strive for international shipping Center. "According to Huang Youfang, president of Shanghai Maritime University, behind the port is the industry, and behind the industry is the city. If a large port does not have similar policies as the free trade zone and free trade port, its resource allocation capacity will be restricted. Therefore, the approval of the free trade zone is a very important development opportunity for the outward development of the shipping industry in Shandong and even northern China.

In fact, in the "China (Shandong) Free Trade Pilot Zone General Plan", it was clearly stated that such issues as improving trade facilitation levels, fostering new trade formats and new models, exploring China-Japan-Korea local economic cooperation, and building a Northeast Asia international shipping hub And other specific requirements.

Earlier, some domestic ports and cities have realized this gap. "Qingdao Port is the best seaport north of the Yangtze River in China. Now it is only a transport port. It has not become a trading port. It can only earn a small amount of money." Qingdao Municipal Party Secretary Wang Qingxian has high hopes for the drive of the city, the largest integrated port in northern China. "When we operate cities and ports, we must fully explore the economic connotation of ports and turn transport ports into trading ports."

Nowadays, Shandong has integrated port resources and possessed the policy advantages of free trade zones. The transformation of ports into hub ports and trade ports and the transformation of cities into international shipping centers have become new targets.

According to the Economic Observer, Shandong Port Group plans on the one hand to “increasing the number of sea routes, expanding capacity, and expanding transit” —the opening of branch lines in Weihai, Rizhao, Yantai, and the Bohai Bay to form Qingdao Port as the hub port, and others to feed Support the development pattern of the port and branch network of the port; at the same time, strengthen cooperation with large shipping companies such as Maersk, COSCO Shipping, and the Mediterranean to encrypt routes, expand capacity, expand transit, and expand domestic trade, and build a transit network that radiates northeast Asian port groups. On the one hand, it is planned to "open trains to land, build ports, and expand sources of supply"-the inland areas of the Midwest are cross-harvesting ports. The four major port groups will form a strong external competitive advantage, leverage each other, reasonably complement each other, Strengthen linkages and build an advantageous position in Northeast Asia, thereby promoting an open pattern of "mutual mutual assistance between East and West, and land, sea, and overseas linkages."

At the same time, Shandong Port Group initiated the establishment of the “Belt and Road” land-sea joint development alliance, covering international cooperation platforms of 40 units such as ports, railways, shipping, logistics, industry, government, etc. The joint development fund will support the construction of Shandong International Shipping Center in all aspects by cultivating the port industry, trade, finance, and high-end shipping service industries.

Wang Wei, the director of the Institute of Market Economy of the Development Research Center of the State Council, pointed out that from the current point of view, the global logistics landscape is undergoing new changes-global economic growth and trade centers are moving from developed countries to developing countries. This will make a big change in the circulation of global goods in the future.

At present, China has approved 18 places as pilot free trade zones. This is regarded by the outside world as the Chinese government's reform to promote a new round of opening up. Compared with the previous unified national opening-up policy, the 18 places can be tested on the basis of their own characteristics.

Huang Youfang, president of Shanghai Maritime University, said that the scale of production capacity and free trade policy are necessary conditions for the rise of a large port and the formation of an international shipping center. Under the circumstances of the global trade change, taking advantage of the free trade test, whether the newly established port carrier can capture the long-awaited Northeast Asian shipping center, I believe time will give the answer.