Introduction

Today, almost everyone has a mobile phone, but few realize that each mobile phone in hand is assembled from parts and components supplied by nearly a thousand companies from more than ten countries. For instance, the mobile phones produced by the Chinese company Huawei are composed of parts and components from hundreds of companies in Europe, Japan, and the Republic of Korea (the ROK). Similarly, the mobile phones produced by the American company Apple require components supplied by hundreds of companies in China, Japan, ASEAN, Europe, among other countries and regions. There has been a long global industrial chain for the manufacturing of mobile phones, in which the trade in goods plays a fundamental role.

This is a microcosm of global trade. A defining feature of modern society is to promote development through trade.

World and ports

Global trade has facilitated the economic globalization, leading to the ever-changing global economic architecture. In the era of agricultural civilization, economic growth around the world tended to concentrate in areas featuring favorable climate for agricultural development. With the development of economic globalization, the focus of global economy has been shifting to coastal areas.

Today, the global GDP are mainly contributed by areas within 300 kilometers of the coastal zone. Over the past 40 years since the launch of reform and opening up, the coastal areas in southeast China have registered the fastest economic growth in China and beyond.

It can be said that the rapid growth of coastal areas around the world and the economic globalization support and reinforce each other, forming a loop of development stimulated by two driving forces. For one thing, countries all over the world have been undertaking institutional reforms to continuously deepen the liberalization and facilitation of global trade. For another, advances in ocean transportation technology have brought down the cost of transportation and of trade as well, enabling more countries to engage in global division of labor and global trade.

According to the Trade Statistics and Outlook released by the World Trade Organization, the value of global merchandise exports in 2018 was 19.5 trillion dollars, compared with that of global merchandise imports at 19.9 trillion dollars. In other words, the goods worth about 40 trillion dollars were exchanged internationally in 2018. It may not sound ideal compared with previous years, given that the global trade in the second decade of the 21st century seemed relatively weak compared with the soaring global trade in the first decade. Nonetheless, the total volume was still staggering.

There’s no way to precisely gauge the price of goods shipped through ports in global trade. It is generally reckoned that two-thirds of goods in global trade are shipped by sea. By measure of weight, the goods in global trade shipped by sea in 2018 weighed approximately 11 billion tons, about the average over five years.

The above-mentioned global trade in goods wouldn’t be possible without ports, great and small, along coastlines all over the world. If we liken ports to stations, the ships’ berths would be the platform in a station, and serve as the parking spots for ships and a junction for the loading and unloading of passengers and goods. Therefore, ports have been the most important infrastructure in modern society, though few people know much about ports and many people may have never been to a modern port throughout their lives.

For the vast majority of countries all over the world, ports constitute a part of the national infrastructure. However, ports have been of far greater strategic significance than other infrastructure facilities in a general sense, which makes ports a vital part of overall national strength.

China and ports

We don’t know the total number of ports around the world, but there is accurate statistics on the ports in China. In 2020, there had been 2,592 berths for 10,000-tonnage ships or above, including 2,138 ones at coastal ports. In 2020, the cargo throughput of Chinese ports reached 14.55 billion tons and the container throughput reached 260 million TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units), both ranking first in the world. If these containers were lined up, it may stretch over two million kilometers.

As for the prices of these goods, one set of data can be used for reference. China’s imports and exports of goods increased from 3.95 trillion dollars in 2015 to 4.65 trillion dollars in 2020, maintaining the number one position in the world, setting new records in both scale and international market share.

Therefore, it can be said that ports have laid an important foundation for national development since the founding of New China and for economic miracles since the launch of reform and opening up. These ports along Chinese coastline extending over 18,000 km long have contributed significantly to a better life for the people, urban prosperity, and unprecedented changes to the nation.

Ports serve as the foundation for the development of coastal cities. The development of the world economy over the past century has been in sync with the continuously expanding globalization that’s typically reflected in global division of labor and global trade. All goods, ranging from large ones like airplanes, ships, and high-speed trains, to small ones such as mobile phones, computers, and home appliances, are inseparable from global trade and global division of labor. Each company desires to have its own cross-border logistics and transportation, and each city wishes to directly engage in global trade and global division of labor. Therefore, every company tends to settle in cities with well-developed transportation to connect with the world, and every city desires ports best-connected with the world to conduct global trade. Under such circumstances, as a basic platform, ports were equipped with the functions of coordinating foreign trade, promoting industrial development, and spawning relevant industries. Arguably, ports have boosted the rapid development of urban economy and created opportunities for the development of China’s coastal port cities.

However, coastal cities are usually in shortage of basic resources for modern economic development, and the same is true for coastal cities in eastern China. China’s coal and mineral resources are concentrated in the inland cities and the northern areas. As such, coastal cities need to ship a great deal of resources from these areas by water to minimize the cost for transportation. For instance, since China’s coal is concentrated in Shanxi, Shaanxi, and western Inner Mongolia, the coal in these areas is first transported by train to the ports in northern China, and then transported by ships to the coastal cities in southeastern China. In this way, ports became an important infrastructure that has facilitated the coordinated use of China’s resources as a whole and boosted the economic growth in China.

Petroleum and steel are the blood and bone of modern industry. Recent years have seen China growing into a major petroleum importer. Meanwhile, China needs to import a large amount of iron ore for the development of the steel industry. Under such circumstances, the petroleum from the Middle East and African countries, and iron ore from Brazil, Australia, South Africa, and other countries are first transported by large ships to ports in eastern China, before being shipped to petroleum and steel plants. Then, the gasoline, chemical products, and steel products are manufactured by these plants to satisfy local demands and be shipped to inland cities. In other words, ports have played a huge and irreplaceable role for the north-to-south coal transportation and the imports of crude oil and iron ore, which has in turn promoted the modernization of ports in China. The throughput capacity of China’s coastal ports has increased from 260 million tons in 1980 to 1.42 billion tons in 2000, before soaring to about 10 billion tons in 2018.

In the meantime, the container throughput of China’s coastal ports reached 220 million TEUs. Such a huge number of containers need to be unloaded from ships with the highest efficiency, and then transported to urban and rural areas, before arriving at thousands of workshops and households. At the same time, they could also be transported from countless workshops to ports where they are loaded onto the ships, and then transported to the rest of the world. In the process, the loading and unloading speed of containers has been a key measure for the port efficiency.

In 2018, a given ship spent a median of 23.5 hours in ports. Specifically, dry bulk carriers spent typically 2.05 days during a port call, while container ships spent an average of 0.7 days. A port call takes 0.97 days on average. For a port, a shorter time for port call is correlated with higher port efficiency and greater competitiveness in trade environment. To minimize the time spent in ports, the ports and port authorities must continuously increase the loading and unloading speed and optimize the operation processes in ports.

Over the past 70 years, how have Chinese ports been upgraded? How to construct and operate the waterways and docks? How to load and unload goods efficiently? What kind of development pattern has China’s ports formed? This book will take deep dive into these questions. Given the extremely extensive system for the port development in China and a grand narrative for China’s achievements in this respect, this book can merely make a general introduction. With a deep respect for the Chinese port builders, we will make an introduction in a general and easy-to-understand way. Should there be any inaccuracies and deficiencies, we are looking forward to criticisms and corrections from professionals.