How big a market can a waterway bring? Pinglu Canal Construction Drives Logistics and Industrial Upgrading

Finance Lao Wang丨How big of a market can a waterway bring?

If you want to be rich, you must first build roads, this time it is water roads. Lao Wang walked along the waterway and showed you how sensitive the market's sense of smell is and how fast it responds!

By the Yujiang River, more than 40 boats were lined up along the river, and a team of more than a thousand people was busy with their own business. This is the largest private shipyard in Guangxi, busy upgrading ships.

Huang Junchao, Vice Chairman of Horizon Shipbuilding: There are about 60 ships under construction, and this year there are about 40 new energy ships. About 19 new orders have been received. New energy ships have increased by about 50% compared with previous years.

The shipyard is in full swing and the docks are busy. But Lao Wang walked around Nanning Port. Apart from the dock, there was also the construction site of Nanning Liujing Industrial Park next to it.

There are many tower cranes and operations are constantly going on. There are already more than 200 companies near the port, and new companies are coming in one after another.

Why is it so popular? This side is the factory area, and that side is the dock. The cargo unloading ship can directly enter the factory for production. In the jargon, it is called "the front port and the back factory". When the Pinglu Canal was first started four years ago, BYD and Sun Paper came to settle down. They provide spodumene for new energy vehicles and wood chips and wood pulp for papermaking. By using the canal, logistics costs can be reduced by 30 to 40%. Every penny saved on freight is a cost of competitiveness.

The market always moves faster than the news. From January to July this year, before the canal was put into use, there were 148 newly signed projects worth more than 50 million yuan in key implementation areas of the Pinglu Canal Economic Zone, covering many fields such as new energy, batteries, ships and other high-end equipment manufacturing, forest product processing, and artificial intelligence. And more processing, warehousing, trading and other high value-added enterprises want to come here, and many projects are under negotiation.

The real economy is so prosperous, where does the money come from?

Lao Wang found such a credit list in the bank. Although the canal has not yet been opened, the credit list related to the canal is getting longer and longer. In August this year, Guangxi also launched the "Pinglu Loan", mainly for the construction of the new western land-sea corridor project, river-sea combined transport logistics, port shipping and other projects, with 30 million yuan issued in one month.

A single account is easy to calculate, but the overall account is larger. Lao Wang found a set of data from the statistics table of the People's Bank of China: In 2022, the construction of the Pinglu Canal started. By the end of July this year, the loan balance of enterprises and institutions in Guangxi had increased by 1.26 trillion yuan.

Of course, not all the money was borrowed from the canal, but the canal was like a water pump. The moment construction started, more and more capital began to be introduced to Guangxi, causing significant changes in Guangxi's industrial structure.

Liu Mu, Vice President of Agricultural Bank of China Guangxi Qinzhou Branch: Judging from the loan investment direction of our Agricultural Bank of China Qinzhou Branch, at the end of August this year, the balance of Lingang advanced manufacturing loans and smart green port construction loans had basically doubled compared with the end of 2022.

They say that if the canal is navigable, it will only carry cargo. The opening of the canal also creates new opportunities for artificial intelligence. This pair of AI glasses has built-in all ASEAN languages, allowing real-time and barrier-free communication with ASEAN merchants.

Huang Yuyang, Marketing Director of Maiyue Technology Co., Ltd.: Guangxi is a window to ASEAN. We can better understand the people of ASEAN and what their consumer needs are. After the opening of the Pinglu Canal, this is a great business opportunity. AI technology and the completion of the canal will be used to empower our products to be transported to ASEAN countries and even some further countries.

So what does this river have to do with us people?

Let’s talk about the current situation first. Fruits from fruit farmers can now be shipped on the ship at your doorstep, saving a lot of time in transshipment. Let’s look at jobs again. The port needs people, the fleet needs people, and the ship repairs need people. When the factories and wharves are turned around, canal tourism starts, cultural tourism will benefit from it. As long as the canal is open to navigation, there will be plenty of work. Going further, the port-facing industries will face a huge explosion. Goods, factories, businesses, logistics, economics and trade, and industries will all be linked together, and the number of jobs will continue to increase.

Therefore, this river is the starting line for Guangxi's "strengthening towards the sea", and it is also the door for the entire Southwest to rush from the "inland terminal" to the "open frontier". Once the river opens, opportunities will follow the water. The canal was built, but it was just the beginning. In the future, the number of goods will increase year by year, factories will open one after another, and the popularity will become more and more popular. I believe this river will definitely bring more surprises.