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Ports around Bohai Sea are busy in domestic trade, and foreign trade in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta

Release time:

2023-05-30 11:48

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Recently, the number of new cases in a single day in many countries reached a record high, among which the United States exceeded 100,000 for 10 consecutive days. In order to contain the epidemic, countries have tightened epidemic prevention measures, and new progress has been made in vaccine research and development. On the 15th, 15 Asia-Pacific countries signed the RCEP to provide a more convenient mechanism for countries to jointly promote economic and trade recovery in the post-epidemic era. In mid-November, the China Ports Association monitored that the cargo throughput of major coastal hub ports increased by 2% year-on-year, of which the throughput of foreign trade cargo dropped by 1.3% year-on-year; the throughput of the Yangtze River hub port increased by 12.1% year-on-year.

Details are as follows:

1. Containers in the eight major hub ports continue to maintain rapid growth

Since the fourth quarter, foreign trade exports have continued to improve. It mainly includes three aspects. First, the increase in demand for foreign epidemic prevention materials drives the export of masks, medical equipment and other related products; second, the increase in demand for home office and life-related supplies for epidemic prevention and control drives the export of furniture, home appliances, home office supplies and other products; The epidemic has affected production and supply in some countries, and some orders have been transferred to China to drive exports. In mid-November, the China Ports Association monitored that the container throughput of the eight hub ports increased by 8.9% year-on-year; of which, the container throughput of foreign trade increased by 9.5% year-on-year, and the domestic trade increased by 7.4% year-on-year. In terms of ports, the container throughput of Tianjin, Shanghai, Ningbo Zhoushan, Xiamen and Shenzhen ports increased by more than 10%, of which Ningbo Zhoushan Port increased by more than 30%. In terms of subregions, the domestic trade container throughput of ports in the Bohai Rim region increased rapidly, and the foreign trade container throughput of ports in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta region increased rapidly.

2. The key monitoring port coal throughput growth rate has further accelerated.

Recently, on the one hand, coal mines in certain areas have limited production due to accidents affecting their supply. On the other hand, the country’s wide-scale cooling weather has continued to increase social power consumption, which has led to a rebound in demand for electricity and coal. The coal market continues to be tight. It is reported that the southern provinces will receive an import quota of about 7-9 million tons before the end of the year to ease the tight supply situation in the domestic market. In mid-November, the coal throughput of Qinhuangdao Port and Shenhua Huanghua Port increased by 10.2% year-on-year, and the growth rate was further accelerated compared with the previous period. Among them, Shenhua Huanghua Port increased by 15.3% year-on-year. On November 20, the coal stocks in the two ports decreased by 21.9% year-on-year, and increased by 3.1% from November 10.

3. Crude oil throughput of key monitoring ports continued to drop year-on-year

Recently, oil prices have fluctuated around US$40 per barrel. With the further expansion of the epidemic prevention blockade, the International Energy Agency lowered its global oil demand outlook, and the OPEC+ meeting postponed the production increase plan for 3-6 months. Domestically, the growth rate of crude oil processing volume slowed down, with a year-on-year increase of 2.6% in October, which was nearly 10 percentage points lower than the peak period in July. In this period, the China Ports Association's key monitoring of the crude oil throughput of coastal ports decreased by 4.4% year-on-year, which was slightly narrower than the previous period. Port inventory began to fall from the previous month. On November 20, the key monitoring port crude oil inventory decreased by 6.3% compared with November 10, an increase of 25.7% year-on-year.

4. Key monitoring port metal ore throughput increased slightly

Recently, the positive macro economy has continued to add to the sudden overhauls and production cuts of many steel mills. Steel inventories have fallen for 6 consecutive weeks. Steel market prices have risen steadily, which has driven downstream iron ore prices to continue to rise. The contract price of iron ore 2101 on the 20th rose 7.5% from the 10th. However, with the snow falling and cooling in the north, the steel market will gradually enter the off-season, and downstream steel demand will gradually weaken. In mid-November, China Ports Association focused on monitoring port metal ore throughput, which increased by 2.2% year-on-year. On November 20, port inventory decreased by 4.9% year-on-year.

5. The production of the Yangtze River hub port continued to pick up.

With the gradual recovery of economy and trade in the hinterland, production at the Yangtze River port continued to improve. Statistics show that in mid-November, the cargo throughput of the three ports of Nanjing, Wuhan, and Chongqing increased by 12.1% year-on-year. The growth rate has slowed down compared with the previous period, but still maintained a strong rebound trend, and the growth rate of each port exceeded 10%. The container business further accelerated, with a year-on-year growth of 17.5%, an acceleration of 4.1 percentage points from the previous period; of which, the growth rate of Wuhan Port reached 85%, showing a strong growth momentum.

China Ports Association

November 22, 2020