Shanghai unveils shipping hub master plan today
Shanghai plans to announce details today of policy measures in a bid to develop the city into a larger regional shipping hub, sources said.
The measures include tax incentives, an infrastructure upgrade and inauguration of the country's first arbitration court to decide international disputes. The measures will be in line with the Shanghai government's stated ambition to attract more shipping agencies from around the world to use the city's suburban Yangshan port as a transshipment site for Asia-wide trade.
The tax adjustments could help attract more shipping firms and other companies that move cargo by land transport to use Shanghai's ports, while the arbitration court would be a required feature for a shipping hub, analysts said. But the city's attempt to become an international shipping centre could put its ambitions of becoming an international financial hub on a policy backburner, some observers said.
'At this stage we will devote most of our efforts to seeking breakthroughs in the shipping sector while remaining cautious about rolling out major financial market innovations,' said a government official with direct knowledge of the policy blueprint. 'A lot of sensitive issues need to be settled at the central government level before any meaningful progress can be made on the financial front.'
In March, the central government endorsed Shanghai's ambition to transform itself into an international hub for both the financial and shipping sectors by 2020 by promising to authorise groundbreaking policy initiatives in the city's jurisdiction.
'Obviously, shipping, at least for now, takes the front seat from the more-hyped financial liberalisation in Shanghai's drive to enhance its global economic status,' said an executive at a state-owned bank in the city who has seen the first batch of policy initiatives on the shipping front, expected to be released today.
The People's Daily reported in March that Shanghai cargo throughput rose 3.6 per cent last year to 582 million tonnes, making it the world's busiest port for the fourth consecutive year. It ranks second for container throughput to Singapore.
The removal of sales tax on shipping agencies registered in Shanghai is on the cards along with faster delivery of export tax rebates for all domestic shipments using Shanghai's Yangshan port as a transit site.
A range of enticements and infrastructure-building plans are also expected to lure Yangtze Delta cargo owners - currently contributing the majority of tonnage to the Yangshan port's turnover - to use more waterways instead of expensive, congestion-causing road transportation.
'To move domestic shipments to the Yangshan port before transferring them onto international liners, cargo owners have to pay a lot of extra bucks in loading and unloading costs incurred on trucks and barges required,' Liu Wei, a professor at Shanghai Maritime University, said. 'The new measures would help reduce these fees by providing more convenient and cheaper inner waterway thoroughfares to Yangshan.'
Hard times
Container throughput in Shanghai's ports saw a year-on-year drop in March of: 9%