On December 13, 2024, as the “Hainan Fengguangxi” container liner carrying 32 tons of lighters from Shaodong enterprises in Hunan slowly left the Qinzhou automated container terminal of Beibu Gulf Port in Guangxi, the maiden voyage of the Western Land-Sea New Corridor lighter foreign trade export train (Hunan/Guizhou-Beibu Gulf Port-Jakarta) was successfully completed.
At present, there are four major lighter production bases in China, including Cixi City, Zhejiang Province, Shaodong City, Hunan Province, Xiayi County, Henan Province and Guizhou Area. Among them, Guizhou mainly undertakes the transfer of lighter industry from Shaodong, Hunan Province. At present, the output has reached more than 60% of the total output of Hunan Province, mainly distributed in Cengong, Dalong, Yuping, Wanshan, Tongren, Bianyang, Luodian and other places. In recent years, the demand for foreign trade exports of lighter manufacturers in Guizhou to Southeast Asia has increased. In the past, the export route of the region mainly relied on automobile transportation to the Yangtze River Delta region, and then transferred to sea transportation for export, which had problems such as long detours, high costs and long time consumption.
In order to accelerate the construction of the new western land-sea channel, tap into inland cargo sources, and promote the transformation and upgrading of the cargo source structure, Guangxi Beigang Logistics Co., Ltd. and Beibu Gulf Port Co., Ltd. have repeatedly investigated the main production areas of lighters for foreign trade export, such as Shaodong, Hunan, and Luodian, Guizhou, to understand the export situation and key node issues of lighters. Shen Shangwei, deputy general manager of Guangxi Beigang Logistics Co., Ltd., said that with the strong support of local governments, port departments (customs), etc., the company has worked closely with the Shaodong Lighter Association, enterprises and shipping companies, and successfully promoted the pilot shipment of lighters from Beibu Gulf Port by using the method of truck transportation to the port and port packaging.
Lighters are classified as dangerous goods of flammable gases in item 2.1. They are flammable during transportation, and the country has strict regulations on their transportation and storage. Zhou Chuijian, assistant to the general manager of Guangxi Qinzhou Bonded Port Area Shenggang Terminal Co., Ltd., introduced that in order to ensure that every link meets the relevant safety standards, the company conducted multiple safety assessments and risk analyses, formulated detailed “Safety Operation Measures for Dangerous Goods Container Loading of Export Lighters”, and carried out special business safety training for all personnel involved in the operation to ensure that the personnel have the necessary qualifications and emergency response capabilities, and successfully completed the first export of lighters through Beibu Gulf Port.
It is reported that for enterprises in southwest China that export lighters to Southeast Asian countries via the Beibu Gulf Port, the land transportation mileage will be shortened by more than 400 kilometers compared with the previous route, the comprehensive logistics cost of a single container will be reduced by about 7%, and the whole journey time will be shortened by about 7 days, which will effectively solve the problem of “detour” for enterprises and will greatly reduce the logistics costs of lighter enterprises’ foreign trade exports.
