Driving into the Qinzhou Port on the Beibu Gulf of Guangxi, the rows of containers attract your attention. The berths lined up along the coast, the blue bridge cranes with their heads raised in array, and the endless flow of freighters... it's all busy and orderly.
There were few people in the huge dock, only the roar of machines. Where have all the people gone?
In the remote control room one kilometer away, the automated remote controller can remotely control multiple quay cranes and rail cranes to operate simultaneously with a click of the mouse, and easily "handle" containers weighing dozens of tons.
Zhang Minghe, deputy manager of the operations department and deputy manager of the commerce department of Guangxi Qinzhou Free Trade Port Area Honggang Terminal Co., Ltd., told reporters that the automated container terminal in the Qinzhou Port area is equipped with advanced, intelligent, energy-efficient automated loading and unloading and horizontal transportation equipment, integrating artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, automatic control and other technologies to achieve a high degree of informatization, standardization and full automation of operations at the terminal.
"Our terminal is the world's first 'U-shaped craft' layout." Zhang Minghe said. This layout changes the traditional end-of-terminal operation mode. The container trucks can enter the yard, reach any bay, and hand over the containers. At the same time, the truck travels along the U-shaped road, and the driverless IGV car travels on the side road. It is physically isolated, does not interfere with each other, and has high safety. To put it bluntly, in other modes, the rail crane looks for the truck, while in "U-shaped craft", the truck looks for the rail crane.
Zhang Minghe made some calculations. Compared with traditional manual terminals, the U-shaped process layout abandons the traditional sea-side relay operation mode of terminals, greatly shortens the running distance of various operating equipment, and effectively reduces the empty mileage and ineffective operation time of equipment. On this basis, all operating equipment on the site are equipped with variable frequency drives and energy feedback systems as standard, which can convert the braking potential energy of the equipment into electrical energy and realize secondary recycling of energy. With the superposition of multiple advantages, the overall energy consumption of the terminal equipment is saved by about 30%, and the power consumption of a single box is reduced by 45%.
Qinzhou Port also has the country's first all-area smart security system for ports. There are more than 4,000 cameras throughout the site. Through video collection, it can actively analyze and judge the security situation, which greatly reduces the cost of manual inspections. In addition, there is a port intelligent flexible charging robot, specially designed for unmanned IGV. When the IGV arrives, the robot automatically connects to charge without human intervention.
Empowered by various technologies, the terminal's efficiency is rising: in 2023, the container throughput will be 905,000 TEU (standard containers), in 2024 it will reach 1.656 million TEU (standard containers), and in 2025 it will jump to 2.259 million TEU (standard containers).
As an important hub of the New Land-Sea Corridor in the West, the Qinzhou Automated Container Terminal is the country's first sea-rail combined transport automated container terminal, which can realize direct loading and unloading between the port and the railway, greatly shortening the sea-rail combined transport time. On September 16, the Pinglu Canal was officially opened to navigation, and Qinzhou Port realized river-sea combined transportation.
To this end, Qinzhou Port is carrying out adaptive transformation of existing facilities. At present, 13 of the 13 river-sea combined transport berth renovation projects have been completed, and the expansion projects of No. 9 and 10 berths and 5 special berths for river-sea combined transport will be completed and put into operation one after another. "The five river-sea intermodal transport berths will be integrated with berths 7-10, relying on the Pinglu Canal outlet and China Railway Qinzhou Railway Container Center Station to create Beibu Gulf Port's first fully automated container terminal integrating river-sea intermodal transport and sea-rail intermodal transport." Zhang Minghe said. By then, inland rivers and seaports will be "seamlessly connected", and 1,000-ton ships and 10,000-ton seagoing vessels can achieve rapid "ship-to-ship" transfer here.
The efficient and convenient multimodal transport hub will effectively attract industries such as bulk commodities, equipment manufacturing, new materials, cross-border logistics, and trade circulation to be deployed along the canal and ports, drive the development of port-side industrial clusters, and give birth to a huge cross-border logistics market.
"The China-Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park will fully unleash the logistics facilitation advantages of the New Western Land-Sea Corridor and accelerate the transformation of channel traffic into increased foreign trade." Chen Baoguo, associate director of the Trade Logistics Bureau of the China-Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park, said that based on the needs of the ASEAN market, the park will strengthen industrial cooperation with areas along the New Western Land-Sea Corridor, actively undertake gradient transfers of industries, and cultivate and expand port-facing industrial clusters.
The busy port is constantly loading and unloading containers. A container train on the railway 800 meters away is honking its whistle and departing. Freighters on the canal are constantly approaching. A new hub for river-sea combined transport and sea-rail combined transport is full of vitality.
