Auto & Transportation

On March 22, a Ro ship carrying 3000 domestic brand new energy vehicles slowly left the Nansha Automobile Terminal and set sail for overseas. As of March 21, the number of cars declared for export in the Nansha Pilot Free Trade Zone this year has exceeded 39000, a year-on-year increase of more than 1.6 times.

"The increase in the export of domestic new energy vehicles is due, on the one hand, to the fact that our independent brands are actively exploring the international trade market, and the business strategy of the company has shifted from focusing on the domestic market to placing equal emphasis on both internal and external markets. On the other hand, due to the continuous improvement in the strength of domestic automotive products, the demand for orders has also increased." Zhang Bojia, Deputy Director of the International Logistics Project Team of Zhongdu Logistics Co., Ltd., which is responsible for the automotive export logistics business, told reporters, Since this year, the company's automobile exports at various domestic ports have been continuously increasing.

In recent years, domestic vehicles, including new energy vehicles, have not only gained increasing influence in China, but also gained a foothold in the international trade market. Behind the acceleration of domestic vehicles' "going to sea", strong support from the logistics supply chain is indispensable. The speed of goods clearance and production delivery capacity have become the key for enterprises to seize new markets.

"Green Channel" on the new track

On March 13, eight general cargo ships were berthed at the No.61-69 dock of Lianyungang Dongfang Port Company. Under the supervision of Lianyungang Customs officers, batches of domestic vehicles were being loaded in order and were about to "sail" to the United Arab Emirates and other countries along the "the Belt and Road".

The continuous efforts of domestic automobile brands in independent research and development, product design and manufacturing have accelerated the pace of "going global" of domestic automobiles such as SAIC Mingjue and Chery. Lianyungang Port, which seized the opportunity of "going to sea" for domestic automobiles, also ranks among the three major ports for the export of machinery, equipment, and vehicles nationwide.

In addition to its hardware advantages such as good location, multiple routes, and convenient transportation, Lianyungang Port's convenient and efficient customs clearance speed, continuously optimized business environment, and high-quality supporting services for roll on/roll off operations are also important considerations for more and more automobile enterprises to choose to "sail" from Lianyungang Port.

Xu He, General Manager of the Eastern Company of the Port Holding Group, believes that "Thanks to the 24-hour boarding and quarantine operations at Lianyungang Port and the convenient entry and exit ship procedures, foreign trade ships can quickly enter and exit, improving the terminal berth turnover capacity, and the average time of ships in the port is compressed by more than 50%."

In response to the actual needs of enterprises with large export volumes and high customs clearance timeliness requirements, Lianyungang Customs has learned about the vehicle export plan and the berthing time of foreign ships in advance, opened up a "green channel" for the arrival of export vehicles, implemented reform and innovation measures such as "early declaration" and "direct loading upon arrival", and improved the speed of vehicle release. In the first two months of this year, Lianyungang Customs ensured that enterprises exported 49408 sets of mechanical equipment and vehicles, an increase of 82.6% year-on-year.

"Next, we will continue to reduce the customs clearance time of entry and exit vehicles of international navigation ships and export vehicles, support the construction of special storage sites for port vehicles, connect and guide the three-dimensional garage project of the port automobile green intelligent logistics center, improve the storage capacity of port vehicles, ensure the export of vehicles with full chain services, and help domestic vehicles to travel smoothly along the the Belt and Road," said Sun Xiaobin, director of Lianyungang Customs' port office.

The way out of the sea at "Home Gate"

At around 12:00 on March 8th, the Yangtze River barge "Minwen" carrying 807 vehicles from Wuhu Port, Anhui Province, sailed down the Yangtze River and arrived at Haitong Wharf in Shanghai Waigaoqiao Port Area, located at the estuary of the Yangtze River. Subsequently, these vehicles will be loaded on foreign trade export ships and shipped to overseas international trade markets.

Since last year, there has been a significant increase in the number of domestic trade vessels shuttling between Waigaoqiao Port Area and various ports in the Yangtze River Delta, which is due to the "water and water combined transport" model. Ports along the Yangtze River are connected to Shanghai Waigaoqiao Port. Domestic cars are unloaded from domestic trade ships and transported to the port. Release instructions are triggered, and then they can be rolled on to foreign trade ships. This direct and economical mode of transportation and convenient customs clearance policies have attracted many car companies to "abandon land for water".

According to reports, through the efficient coordination of customs supervision policies and port terminals, export vehicles can go through customs declaration procedures in the territory where the enterprise is located. After arriving at Waigaoqiao Port Area by domestic trade ships, they can go through clearance procedures and directly carry ocean-going cargo ships out of the country. In the first two months of this year, the customs of Shanghai Waigaoqiao Port Area supervised a total of 55000 vehicles exported for "water water combined transport", accounting for 34% of the total international trade exports.

The convenience of the loading and unloading mode has added assistance to the cost reduction and efficiency increase of domestic automobile exports, which has benefited many automobile companies, including BYD. As an important new energy vehicle production and research and development base for BYD in East China, the output value of BYD Changzhou Base Phase I project has exceeded 28 billion yuan since it was put into production in 2022. A few days ago, a batch of BYD new energy vehicles were loaded with barges after customs clearance at the Luzhou Wharf in Changzhou, and shipped to the outer port of Shanghai by water before being shipped overseas.

In order to ensure the timely clearance of vehicles, Changzhou Customs guides enterprises to rely on the nearby Changzhou Port as the departure port platform, and ship them to the outer port of Shanghai through foreign trade waterway transit. Under this logistics model, enterprises can use their own containers at the Changzhou port without having to transport containers to load goods from other ports, improving the efficiency of container use. Enterprises can go to sea at their "doorstep" to seize progress and stabilize orders.

"The dock environment is humid, and there is a risk of corrosion at the storage site of exported new energy vehicles for a long time. We will coordinate the inspection of exported vehicles as soon as possible," said Jiang Lin, Chief of the Cargo Inspection Section of Changzhou Customs. According to the characteristics of automotive products, the customs has grasped the key points of declaration and inspection in advance, established a dedicated window to provide customs clearance guidance and business consulting services, optimized the regulatory model, implemented services such as "pre inspection", and ensured the "inspection upon arrival, inspection upon release" of new energy products for export.

In addition, Changzhou Customs has vigorously promoted customs facilitation measures such as "early declaration" and "two-step declaration", guiding enterprises to handle the import and export procedures of goods through the "single window" of international trade, and achieving paperless processing of the entire process of declaration. On the other hand, actively establish a communication mechanism with production enterprises, customs declaration and logistics companies, and terminal companies to smooth the information flow in all aspects of export, and help enterprises improve their ability to cope with the risks of cargo shipment caused by uncontrollable reasons such as shipping schedule adjustment, delay, and change.