archivedfreenodepositbonuscodesforzarcasino| Zhou Shaobo, Chairman of Beibu Gulf Port: Serving the national strategy and jointly building a new Western Land-Sea Corridor

"the sea-rail intermodal transport train operates 9580 trains and the container throughput exceeds 8 million TEUs." This is the "report card" handed over by the Beibu Gulf Port in 2023 for the high-level joint construction of a new land and sea corridor in the western region.

Zhou Shaobo, chairman of Beibu Gulf Port, said in an exclusive interview with China Securities News a few days ago that the company will fully participate in the high-level co-construction of a new western land and sea channel and build a hub port at the Beibu Gulf gate. while serving the national strategy, maximize the interests of shareholders.

Achieve steady growth in performance

Beibu Gulf Port is one of the earliest listed companies in China's port industry and Guangxi. In 2013, Fangcheng Port and Qinzhou Port's main wharf backdoor Beibu Gulf Port to achieve the overall listing of Beiqin Fanggang Port, becoming the first enterprise in the country to complete regional port integration.

In recent years, the performance of Beibu Gulf Port has grown steadily, with an average annual compound growth rate of 14% from 2017 to 2022.Archivedfreenodepositbonuscodesforzarcasino.26%, with an average annual compound growth rate of 13.93%. According to KuaiBao, the company's revenue in 2023 was 6.945 billion yuan, an increase of 8.87% over the same period last year, while its net profit was 1.117 billion yuan, an increase of 9.52% over the same period last year.

In 2023, the cargo throughput of Beibu Gulf Port (Hong Kong) exceeded 300 million tons, and the container throughput exceeded 8 million TEUs. The cargo and container throughput ranked ninth and eighth among the country's coastal ports, respectively, with a double-digit growth rate for seven consecutive years. The growth rate ranks first among the country's major coastal ports.

"Beibu Gulf Port actively implements the national strategy, does a good job in port construction and operation, and local sources of goods continue to go out to sea from Beibu Gulf Port, promoting the sustained growth of the company's performance." Zhou Shaobo said.

In August 2019, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the General Plan of the New Land and Sea Corridor in the West, indicating that the construction of the new land and sea corridor in the west has become a national strategy.

The reporter learned that the new land and sea corridor in the west connects the Silk Road Economic Belt in the north and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road in the south, and cooperatively connects the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The Silk Road Economic Belt and inland goods can be transported to Chongqing by railway. from Chongqing to the south through Guizhou and other provinces, shipped through the Beibu Gulf Port, and then transported to ASEAN, Europe and other places.

In addition, the Pinglu Canal, the backbone project of the new western land and sea passage, is currently under construction, which longitudinally connects the Xijiang mainstream and the Beibu Gulf international hub seaport. After it is completed and opened to navigation in the future, it will form the shortest, most economical and most convenient transport channel from Guangxi and southwest to ASEAN, which will further improve the structural function of the new western land and sea channel and greatly enhance the transport capacity of the channel.

In Zhou Shaobo's view, building an international gateway port of the new land and sea passage in the west and an important hub port connecting the sea and land of "Belt and Road Initiative" has become a major advantage in supporting the great-leap-forward development of the Beibu Gulf Port.

Specifically, the construction of the Pinglu Canal can support more sources of goods in the mainland to choose the Beibu Gulf Port. It is estimated that the sea voyage of waterborne goods from Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou from Beibu Gulf is about 560km shorter than that from Guangzhou Port, and the annual transportation cost can be saved by more than 5.2 billion yuan.

At present, Beibu Gulf Port has radiated 18 provinces, 72 cities and 151 stations, the number of "one-port price" routes has increased to 173, the number of transport categories has increased to more than 940, and it has developed from "one line" to "one network".

In terms of international business, Beibu Gulf Port is positioned as "the most convenient sea passage for ASEAN countries in Southwest China". The reporter learned that of the current 48 foreign trade container routes in Beibu Gulf Port, 36 are for ASEAN countries, basically covering all ASEAN countries.

Zhou Shaobo told reporters that the Beibu Gulf Port should become the practitioner of building "Belt and Road Initiative"; the main force in promoting the construction of the new land and sea passage in the western region, the international gateway port in the Beibu Gulf, the seaport of the international hub, and the golden waterway of the Xijiang River; and building the vanguard of the "sea economy."

The dividend of the new land and sea passage in the west has become clear, and how will the Beibu Gulf Port dig the source of goods?Archivedfreenodepositbonuscodesforzarcasino? Zhou Shaobo said that the company will mainly strive for supply in two directions. First, continue to dig deep into the supply of goods in Guangxi, cooperate with other ports, shipping companies, railways, etc., to optimize logistics costs, while meeting the new supply transport needs of Hong Kong enterprises, strengthen to guide traders to use Beibu Gulf Port as the port of delivery. Second, we will continue to focus on the supply of goods along the new land and sea corridor in the western region, continue to give full play to the advantages of the new channel, and guide more foreign trade sources in the western region to ship from Beibu Gulf Port by encrypting the frequency of trains, expanding the extension lines of trains, and improving the service quality of trains.

Zhou Shaobo said frankly that the current profit model of Beibu Gulf Port is relatively simple, the main income is only handling fees, lack of value-added services. In the future, the company will explore port and shipping services, logistics services and value-added services.

Increase investment in infrastructure

While tapping the source of goods, strengthen the construction of port infrastructure. Under the trend of large-scale development of ports, 11 large-scale deep-water wharves have been built in Beibu Gulf Port in the past five years.

In an exclusive interview with reporters, Zhou Shaobo said that if Beibu Gulf Port is to become a world-class port enterprise, it must build and improve its infrastructure. At present, the company specializes and does not have enough large tonnage berths, which does not match the existing demand.

The people's Government of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region put forward a three-year action plan for upgrading the infrastructure of the Beibu Gulf International Portal Port of the New Western Land and Sea Corridor (2023-2025), focusing on the construction of a number of large-scale, specialized and intelligent docks. the maximum berthing capacity of container terminals and bulk cargo terminals will be raised to 200,000 tons and 300,000 tons respectively, so as to meet the berthing requirements of international large-scale ships. Fully meet the needs of waterborne cargo transport in the economic hinterland of south-central and southwestern China.

At the same time, centering on the task of efficiently linking up the Pinglu Canal, Beibu Gulf Port has accelerated the infrastructure construction and capacity supporting of river-sea intermodal transport berths, including upgrading existing berths and a number of new and completed projects. to further promote the high-quality development of river-sea transport infrastructure.

In 2023, the key tasks of Beibu Gulf Port include: first, the completion of berths No. 10 in Qinzhou Port and No. 1 to No. 3 berths in Qinzhou Port, and the further enhancement of multimodal transport and grain warehousing capacity. The port capacity increased by 32.21 million tons, of which container capacity increased by 1.61 million TEUs. The second is to start the construction of berth No. 5 in the Dalanping operation area of Qinzhou Port and two specialized berths of 70,000 tons of grain, with an additional carrying capacity of 11 million tons after the completion of the project, and to carry out research on the technical schemes related to river-sea intermodal transport at berth 6; the third is to promote the preliminary work of a number of river-sea intermodal transport projects.

In addition, the company plans to increase investment in port construction through a fixed increase of capital. According to the announcement disclosed by Beibu Gulf Port, it is planned to raise no more than 3.6 billion yuan. The proposed investment projects include a 100000-ton dangerous goods berth and a 100000-ton bulk cargo berth in South No. 4, South No. 5, West Port District, Tieshan Port, Beihai Port, which belongs to a large-scale deepwater berth, which can adapt to the development trend of large-scale ships, improve the port collection and distribution system, and better serve the real economy in southeastern Guangxi.

According to the Beibu Gulf Port Group, the controlling shareholder, which continues to fulfill the relevant commitments to avoid inter-industry competition, the seven dock berth assets that have not yet been injected into the Beibu Gulf Port will all be injected into the Beibu Gulf Port at an appropriate time in the future.

As Beibu Gulf Port Group and chairman of Beibu Gulf Port, Zhou Shaobo said that the injection of seven berth assets into Beibu Gulf Port is the promise of Beibu Gulf Port Group, which must be fulfilled. "Beibu Gulf Port Group pays more attention to injecting mature projects into listed companies. If the project itself is not mature and does not have mature commercial value, it will not be injected into Beibu Gulf Port."

Grasp the internal potential and tap it.

To build an international gateway port and an international hub seaport in the Beibu Gulf, and to build a world-class port enterprise, team management and talent team construction are the key.

"after I became chairman of Beibu Gulf Port in October 2023, I proposed to attract more high-quality talents and professionals to our management team. In February this year, I led a research team composed of management to Hong Kong, China, visited Hutchison Port and other enterprises, and also investigated other excellent port listed companies in China. A deep feeling is that the construction of a talent team is very important. " Zhou Shaobo said.

Zhou Shaobo told reporters that the Beibu Gulf Port will next do a good job in tapping its internal potential, especially in improving quality and efficiency. At the same time, optimize the procurement, sales and management processes, comprehensively reduce costs, improve the corporate governance mechanism, and enhance the overall governance level of the northern bay port.

Zhou Shaobo said that corporate governance is first of all to establish a good public image, which depends on a high level of governance and sustainable profitability. The company implements the national strategy to jointly build a new western land and sea channel, which will give a positive impetus to the company's business. At the same time, it is necessary to maximize the interests of shareholders as a strategic goal, give real returns to investors, adhere to the implementation of profit dividends, and let investors share the results of operation with the company.

(article source: China Securities News)