Smart port drives regional trade growth

A panorama of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge in December. Qian Wenpan

Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge capitalizes on logistics advantages to enhance exports

Inside the export inspection area at the Zhuhai port of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, a 55-kilometer-long mega sea-crossing span in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, intelligent machines are sorting e-commerce goods daily.

Batches of e-commerce goods flow through the machines, with inspection officers carefully examining export documents and comparing them with scans produced by the machine.

If a scan reveals something questionable, customs officers open and inspect the packages of goods. According to the bridge customs supervision department, it takes less than one hour to complete an inspection of a batch of parcels.

Customs statistics showed that the export value of goods transported through the cross-border e-commerce management platform at the bridge's port from January to October reached 48.66 billion yuan ($6.82 billion), a year-on-year increase of 72.1 percent.

The bridge port covers the import and export of goods for all 31 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions on the Chinese mainland. The market involves over 230 countries and regions, an increase from 105 in 2018.

In 2022 alone, the import and export volume via the bridge's Zhuhai port increased 96.1 percent year-on-year to 269.73 billion yuan, the bridge customs said.

"The bridge, as a major channel linking Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, has greatly improved the efficiency of economic and trade activities between Guangdong and the two special administrative regions, helping drive the high-quality development of trade," said Guo Yanhai, deputy director of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Customs.

The Zhuhai port of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. Qian Wenpan

Before the bridge's traffic service opened, Heime Aquaculture Import and Export, based in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, exported its aquatic products to Hong Kong through Shenzhen's Wenjindu port, also in Guangdong.

"It took several hours for long-distance transportation from Zhuhai to Hong Kong, largely affecting the quality of fresh aquatic products and causing some losses to our business," said Weng Xipeng, general manager of the company.

In October 2018, traffic service on the bridge opened, and the situation changed significantly — the company became the first of its kind to export aquatic products from the Chinese mainland to Hong Kong through the bridge port.

"It takes only about one hour to transport our fresh aquatic products to Hong Kong over the bridge, helping improve our business efficiency and profits," said Weng.

According to Weng, the company's export of aquatic products currently accounts for about 25 percent of the Hong Kong market.

In December 2019, companies received permission to export fresh and live aquatic products to Hong Kong and Macao via the bridge port, followed by frozen and chilled poultry in June 2022.

Previously, fresh and live food such as eggs, dairy products and vegetables, which are popular dining table staples for Hong Kong residents, could only be supplied from the mainland to the special administrative region through the ports of Shenzhen.

A new program, which took effect on July 1, enabled a full range of fresh food to be supplied to Hong Kong and Macao through the Zhuhai port at designated times.

In July alone, the value of agricultural product exports shipping through the port reached 580 million yuan, an increase of 14.2 percent year-on-year, according to data from the bridge customs.

"The bridge has advantages in logistics, which has helped to ensure freshness and lower the cost of our vegetables exported to Hong Kong," said Huang Jinbo, general manager of Zhuhai Yiyuan Import and Export.

The Guangdong-based company mainly processes and ships vegetables to Hong Kong and Macao. Before implementation of the program, the company primarily targeted the Macao market.

According to Huang, since July, its export volume of vegetables to Hong Kong has steadily increased.

"The price of vegetables, along with time and shipping costs, would be less competitive in the Hong Kong market if they were only transported from Zhuhai through the port of Shenzhen," he said.

Liu Huan, a sales manager at Zhuhai Hongfulong Egg Products, said by opening the supply of egg products through the bridge port to Hong Kong, it takes only about two hours for the company to complete the entire transportation process.

"It greatly shortens the transportation time and reduces the one-way transportation cost by approximately 2,000 yuan per vehicle, significantly enhancing the competitiveness of our egg products in the Hong Kong market," said Liu.

Opening traffic on the bridge has boosted the flow of goods and people between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, and facilitated trade for companies from the Chinese mainland to other countries and regions.

Guangdong Biolight Meditech is one of the Chinese companies to have boosted its trade efficiency by exporting its products through the bridge port to the overseas market.

Trucks line up to pass through the Zhuhai port in June. Qiu Quanlin

In October, a cargo truck loaded with 2,000 medical devices made by the company, including electronic blood pressure monitors, pulse oximeters and patient monitors, completed export procedures in under three minutes.

The shipment will be transported to the African market through the Hong Kong airport, according to Zhou Guojun, general manager of the company. The Zhuhai-based company exports its medical devices to more than 150 countries and regions.

Due to flight schedules and other factors, the company often chooses to clear customs in the early morning and transport the goods via the bridge port to the Hong Kong airport for international flights.

"The opening of the bridge has made it more convenient for us to ship our products to the overseas market," said Zhou, adding it takes only two hours from warehouse loading to customs clearance at the port.

Convenient measures such as "pre-declaration" by the bridge customs and the advantage of 24-hour customs clearance have led the company to prioritize exporting goods through the bridge port.

Since the beginning of 2023, the company has exported medical equipment products with a total value exceeding $20 million, according to Zhou.

The variety of cargo transported through the bridge port has become increasingly diverse, including aircraft engines, gold jewelry, integrated circuits and new energy vehicles, according to Ye Yingqiong, head of the fourth supervision section of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Customs.

"High-tech and high-value-added products have become the main imports and exports through the bridge port," said Ye, adding that the volume of incoming and outgoing trucks has steadily increased to the recent daily number of 2,000 trips.

The bridge's opening has had a particularly noticeable impact on the western region of Guangdong, according to Ye.

In the first nine months of this year, the import and export value of companies from western Guangdong through the bridge port reached 8.39 billion yuan, an increase of approximately 28 percent compared to the same period last year. (GD Today)