Shekou Port is one of the key ports in the Dawan District. Over recent years, with the convenient customs clearance policy, sound supporting facilities, and efficient services, more and more importers and exporters have become aware of the strengths of this port, and the categories and volumes of fruit entering China through Shekou Port have been increasing each year. Recently, Chen Boqi, Deputy General Manager of China Merchants Group at Shekou Port, introduced the services and future development plans of the port.
“Currently, there are 147 services arriving at Shekou Port every week (99 from Asia, 12 from Europe and Mediterranean, 11 from the Middle East and the Red Sea, 9 from South America, 7 from Africa, 5 from North America, and 4 from Oceania). In general, the port receives large volumes of fruit from Southeast Asian countries, such as Vietnam, the Philippines, and Thailand. With the support of the customs policy, the efficiency of our customs clearance is on par with Hong Kong, and the supporting facilities have also been improving each year. Our goal is to build Shekou Port into the largest fruit import port in South China," said Chen.
From April 2018, Shekou Port has begun to implement the customs clearance model that allows companies to declare in advance and get cargoes released when arriving in Hong Kong. From August 24, 2019, the port began to pilot the customs clearance model of the “two-step declaration”. In the past, when declaring cargoes, companies had to wait until all information had passed review of the customs before they were released, while they don’t need to submit all the information all at once with the new model, and only need to fill in 9 items. After cargos are released, they can be picked up from the dock. After the cargoes arrive at the destination, the company can then submit other information and pay taxes.
In terms of cost, the national inspection fee for containers arriving at Shekou Port is 1,080 RMB (cold treatment required) or 580 RMB (no cold treatment required), and the trucking fee from the port to Guangzhou Jiangnan Market is approximately 2,500 RMB. "We calculated that the operating cost for entering through Shekou Port for a 40-inch container is about 370 USD lower than that of inland ports such as Shenzhen Bay.”
In terms of supporting facilities, there are 106 reefer checkpoints in the port and 3124 reefer charging points. Last year, the volume of reefer containers arriving at Shekou Port was 46,300 TEU, a 43% increase from the previous year. Fruits that enter through Shekou Port are mainly dragon fruit, bananas, coconuts, longan, pineapples, and mangosteens. Not only have the categories of imported fruit entering the port been increasing year by year, but the imports of each category have also been increasing rapidly.
"We hope that more import companies will see the strengths of Shekou Port, and we are also communicating with importers and exporters in order to continuously improve our services, reduce operating costs, and provide better services to our customers," said Chen. “Currently, in addition to continuously improving our services, we hope to gain strong support from shipping companies and initiate an exclusive service that allows cargoes to be shipped from Thailand to Shekou in 4 days, saving time and costs for durian importers and exporters," said Chen.
More information:
Contact: Chen Boqi
Company: China Merchants Group Port (South China) Operation Center
Phone: +86 13268164869
Email: richardchan@cmhk.com