[Explanation] At 10 o'clock on December 15th, the second-line ship lock of the Xijin Water Conservancy Project in Hengzhou City, Nanning City, Guangxi was officially opened to navigation.
As the dispatching order was issued, the huge miter gates were slowly activated, and 11 ships sailed out of the locks one by one, heading towards the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
After the opening of the second-line ship lock, the tonnage of the ship will jump from 1,000 tons to 3,000 tons when traveling to the Greater Bay Area in Nanning City, and the annual one-way passing capacity will be six times that of the first-line ship lock.
[Concurrent] Xinggui 1065 Captain Zhang Chongshun
In the past, the average tonnage of our company's ships was 500 tons. It took 20 days to arrive from Nanning to Guangzhou Port to sea freight export.
In the past, the navigable capacity of the first-line ship locks was only 1,000 tons. When the peak season of water transportation came to "Golden September and Silver October", there were ships waiting to pass the locks. The congestion of ships not only brought safety risks, but also caused losses to enterprises due to delays in freight transportation, and seriously affected supply. chain stability.
Now that the second line of ship locks has been completed and put into use, 3,000-ton ships sail directly to Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao throughout the year. We can run large ships and ship goods much faster.
[Explanation] With the continuous improvement of the infrastructure construction of the Xijiang Economic Belt, the cargo volume of the Xijiang River has increased, and the average tonnage of ships has grown from 800 tons in 2010 to more than 2,000 tons in 2021.
The actual passage of 1,000-ton ships in the first-line ship lock of Xijin Water Conservancy Project is far from meeting the growing demand for navigation.
[Concurrent] Liang Zhaohui, Director and Deputy General Manager of Xijin Second Line Ship Lock Co., Ltd. of Guangxi Xijiang Group
The actual passing capacity of the first-line ship locks is 1,000-ton ships, which is far from meeting the growing demand for navigation.
Under such a development background, the second-line ship lock project of Xijin Water Conservancy Project came into being. The project entered the comprehensive construction stage in November 2019. After it is completed and put into use, it can pass 3,000-ton ships, effectively solving the bottleneck problem of insufficient passing capacity of the first-line ship lock. .
[Explanation] The annual one-way passing capacity of the existing first-line ship lock of Xijin Water Conservancy Project is 4.5 million tons, and the annual one-way passing capacity of the second-line ship lock will be increased to 27.6 million tons after the opening of the second-line ship lock.
1,000-ton ships can only navigate 3 ships within 2 hours of the existing Xijin first-line ship lock, and 15 ships can be navigable after the second-line ship lock is opened, and the navigation efficiency has been greatly improved.
[Explanation] The Pingtang River Estuary, about 14 kilometers upstream from the second-line ship lock, is the starting point of the Pinglu Canal. After the completion of the Pinglu Canal, the voyage from Nanning to Qinzhou Port via the Pinglu Canal is 291 kilometers, which is shorter than going to sea through Guangdong Province. About 560 kilometers.
[Concurrent] Xinggui 1065 Captain Zhang Chongshun
After the completion of the Pinglu Canal, we can go to Guangxi (Beibu Gulf) Port to go to sea. This is the shortest, most economical and most convenient sea passage in Guangxi. I believe that Xijiang Water Transport will also usher in a new situation of development.
Reported by Yang Chen, Wang Yizhao, Wang Weichen, Nanning, Guangxi
Editor in charge: [Ji Xiang]