East China's Ningbo Port promotes sea-rail intermodal green transport

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠China's busiest port, the Port of Ningbo Zhoushan in the eastern province of Zhejiang, has made significant progress in adopting modes of green transportation, after the port introduced sea-rail intermodal transport and cutting-edge logistics solutions, in keeping with the Chinese government's carbon reduction efforts.

The port introduced the mode of sea-rail intermodal transport in 2004. Since then, the sea-rail intermodal transport business has seen exponential growth, increasing nearly a thousand-fold. It has cut fuel consumption by 500 million liters, saving carbon emissions costs by nearly 100 million yuan (13.8 million U.S. dollars) for clients.

"Now, with the adoption of the electric energy model of railway for transportation, we can achieve zero carbon emissions," said Zhu Shiliang, an assistant environment energy specialist at  Ningbo BeiLun No.1 Container Terminal Co. Ltd.

The port introduced the one-waybill shipping service in 2018 to streamline services. This approach simplifies the documentation process for customers and eliminates the complexities of intermediate document exchanges.

"The one-waybill service refers to shipping houses issuing a Through Bill of Lading at the point of origin. It avoids the cumbersome process of document exchange in the shipping process," said Zhang Zhoulong, deputy director of the sea-rail intermodal center of the Ningbo-Zhoushan Port.

Last year, Southeast Logistics Group leveraged sea-rail intermodal transport at Ningbo-Zhoushan Port to export 200,000 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) of products, valued at 51.3 billion yuan (about 7.10 billion U.S. dollars).

Li Jie, deputy general manager of Southeast Logistics Group, witnessed the growing popularity of this efficient and cost-effective transportation mode.

"Now, we handle about 2,000 to 2,500 high cube containers for sea-rail intermodal transport every week, accounting for 25 percent of the whole group's business. More and more customers are willing to choose this convenient, economical, and efficient way of transportation.," Li said.

The port's business is also fueled by a logistics cloud platform that integrates information on sea ports, land ports, airports. The platform provides shippers with a comprehensive solution for streamlined logistics operations, through which shippers can order and book a container, make declarations at the customs, and achieve multimodal transport. Shippers can also monitor shipment information on the platform.

"Right now, the northern parts of Zhejiang have been fully covered by our platform. This results in over 90-percent of road transport shifting to the sea-river and sea-rail intermodal transport. The overall proportion of the sea-river and sea-rail intermodal transport exceeds 60 percent," said Yu Bo, technical director of Zhejiang Four Port Linkage Development Co., Ltd.

The port's success in green transition reflects China's broader commitment to optimizing transportation structures.

The country has also started the construction of 25 national comprehensive freight hub cities, aiming at enhancing supply chain efficiency and promoting multimodal transportation.   "At present, an intensive and efficient comprehensive transportation system has been initially established. In 2023, the freight volume by rail and by water surged 35.8 percent and 40.7 percent respectively compared with that in 2017, and the green transport of coal and iron ore at major coastal ports surpassed 90 percent and 78 percent respectively. More than 10 million TEUs of cargo were moved via rail-water intermodal transportation, up 15.9 percent year on year," said Fang Hai, deputy director of China Academy of Transportation Science.

In September 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that the country aims to hit peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

East China's Ningbo Port promotes sea-rail intermodal green transport

U.S. tariffs on Cambodia, which were set at 49 percent, have sparked concerns among the Southeast Asian country's key export industries such as garment manufacturing amid the ensuing economic uncertainties.

On April 2, U.S. President Donald Trump announced the 49 percent "reciprocal tariff" on goods imported from Cambodia, the highest among all countries. Days later, the U.S. reduced the so-called "reciprocal tariff" to 10 percent for 90 days, offering a window period to Cambodia for negotiations with it.

Cambodian businesspeople say the tariffs have the potential to wreak havoc on the country's manufacturing sector, which, according to data from the World Bank, makes up around a fifth of the country's GDP.

"For U.S. manufacturers, definitely, there will be a big impact. If manufacturers are focusing on U.S. products, they are now in the middle. They don't know what they should do at the moment because the tariff now from Cambodia to the U.S. is actually quite high," said Dr. Ben Li, a Hong Kong investor in Cambodia and Chairman of the Cambodia Chinese Commerce Association.

Nevertheless, Li sees the tariff hike as an opportunity to export more Cambodian goods to the European Union, where a majority of Cambodian exports enjoy duty-free status.

"I always say there will be a light (at the end of the tunnel.) Even now, the U.S. tariff is so high, it's going to be so high after 90 days, we don't know. But, there's still a big market to Japan or to the European Union. There's still a big opportunity there," he said.

The Cambodian investor also believes the development of major infrastructure projects will help support Cambodia's economy.

"Especially the new canal and then the new airport, and the railways which connect to China. I believe once the logistics and infrastructure are built up, it can help the whole country's economy. By reducing the transportation costs, it can also mitigate the tariff costs," he said.

Cambodia and the U.S. held their first tariff negotiations on April 16, with more expected to follow. Local experts said the stakes are high for the country's workers.

"If this negotiation fails, there will be a significant impact. It will include the garment and travel goods sector. These sectors consist of about 1,068 factories and 930,000 workers. The income generated from these sectors is about 3 billion dollars per year. So it would significantly impact Cambodia's economy, jobs and incomes," said Chey Tech, a socio-economic research and development consultant from Dynamic Alliance Consulting.

Despite the potential risks, Tech expressed his optimism about a positive outcome, citing Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manat's letter to Trump on April 4.

"The Prime Minister's letter confirmed that Cambodia would reduce the tariff rate for U.S. goods to 5 percent. Second, Cambodia is the least developed country. Third, Cambodia produces goods that the developed countries won't produce. We asked whether the U.S. would be able to produce these low-cost products. It cannot," said Tech.

In 2024, Cambodia exported goods of 9.9 billion dollars to the U.S., making it the country's largest market, accounting for 37 percent of Cambodia's total exports.

49-percent US tariffs sparks worry among Cambodia's key export industries