Zhuhai Port Holdings Group made another move into the Yangtze River transport business on March 4 by formally agreeing to cooperate in several areas with Anhui Provincial Port & Shipping Group.

Under the strategic agreement, the ports will work together on shipping logistics and finance, bulk goods logistics, engineering construction, and information science and technology.

Just last September, Zhuhai Port took control of Xinghua Port Holdings in Changshu in the Yangtze River Delta. This enables Zhuhai Port to tap into inland lightering (transport of cargo between large and small vessels), bulk commodity supply chain, and coastal shipping on the Yangtze.

Hefei Port on the upper reaches of the Feihe River, with connections to the Yangtze River near Wuhu to the south [Photo courtesy hefeiport.com]

Hefei-based State-owned Anhui Provincial Port & Shipping Group is the first large enterprise in China to promote synergetic port and shipping development. It is also the largest port and shipping infrastructure investor and constructor, largest port logistics and navigation lock operation enterprise, and a portal enterprise for opening-up in Anhui Province.

The enterprise was established in 2018 to build ports and shipping channels, and deal in port operation, and sea and river transportation. It has wharves at Hefei and Bengbu hub ports, and Anqing, Chizhou, Tongling, Wuhu, and Maanshan ports on the Yangtze. The group owns all waterborne port facilities for foreign trade in Anhui. It has registered capital of 15 billion yuan ($2.3 billion) and total assets or 40 billion yuan ($6.14 billion).

Zhuhai Port Holdings is a large State-owned enterprise founded in 2008 with registered capital of 3.5 billion yuan ($537.6 million). Its business covers port and shipping logistics centered on Gaolan Port and extending to the Xijiang and Yangtze rivers, while also covering new-energy and equipment manufacture.

It has grown into the largest port and shipping enterprise on the west bank of the Pearl River Estuary and a national 5A comprehensive service logistics enterprise. With assets of more than 57 billion yuan ($8.76 billion), the enterprise operates three A-share listed and two New Third Board-listed subsidiaries.

Ding Qingling, chairman of the Anhui group, seeks all-round collaboration in port and shipping engineering construction, logistics trade along the Yangtze and Xijiang rivers, and finance and capital operations under a "Dual Circulation" development pattern (Chinese and foreign markets complement and reinforce each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay).