Historic port city to integrate with national strategies
Looking out from Yueyang Tower, renowned Song Dynasty (960-1279) writer Fan Zhongyan described the strategic position and spectacular view of Dongting Lake as “connecting the remote mountains and swallowing the Yangtze”.
This is why the lake and riverside city of Yueyang has long been regarded as the most important port for Hunan’s trade with the rest of the country and the world.
This role is today further consolidated with Hunan planning to use the port city to integrate with the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Belt and Road Initiative.
Yueyang boasts 163 kilometers of coast along the Yangtze that is suitable for developing river harbors.
Relying on Chenglingji Port, the largest port in Hunan, Yueyang announced the establishment of the Yueyang Port Economic New Area in December 2009, for developing the logistics and manufacturing industries.
In July 2015, the Hunan provincial government approved Yueyang’s plan to build Chenglingji New Port to pilot Hunan’s integration with the Yangtze River Economic Belt, a regional development program endorsed by the central government in 2014.
“We have put the development of Yueyang’s port industry in the framework of national development strategies and global initiatives, like the Yangtze River Economic Belt and Belt and Road Initiative, which have offered us unprecedented opportunities,” said Huang Junjun, Party chief of Chenglingji New Port.
At present, the port area includes a comprehensive bonded zone, an automobile terminal, a grain terminal and
We have put the development of Yueyang’s port industry in the framework of national development strategies and global initiatives.” Huang Junjun, Party chief of Chenglingji New Port
a number of other functional areas.
To further integrate the port with the Yangtze River Economic Belt, Yueyang Port Group, Changsha Port Group and Shanghai Port Group formed the Chenglingji International Port Group in May 2015. The Yueyang-based joint venture came into operation in January 2016.
Chenglingji Port has received 12 billion yuan ($1.87 billion) in investment in the past two years for building road networks to connect it to Yueyang city and the rest of Hunan.
In 2017, the port’s container throughput surpassed 400,000 twenty-feet-equivalent units, a historic high. It also ranked No 1 among all Yangtze River ports in terms of year-on-year growth.
Huang said he is optimistic about the future of the port, predicting that its container throughput will reach 500,000 TEUs in 2020 and foreign trade volume via the port will hit $5 billion in the same year.