On June 3rd, the Pinglu Canal achieved full water flow, entering a comprehensive water-based testing phase. On June 8th, the construction of the new Three Gorges Water Transport Passage project broke ground... In recent times, several major water transport projects have pressed the "fast-forward" button on construction.
Major water transport projects are a crucial support for enhancing cross-regional freight efficiency and a significant lever for expanding effective investment and stimulating domestic demand to stabilize growth.
As the first major national landmark project to commence construction during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, the new Three Gorges Water Transport Passage project has an estimated static total investment of approximately 77.208 billion yuan.
"The construction of the new Three Gorges Water Transport Passage project has a long cycle and a large investment scale, involving substantial earth and rock excavation, concrete pouring, and requiring the use of large quantities of bulk raw materials, machinery, and electromechanical equipment. This will drive effects across the related upstream, midstream, and downstream industrial chains and create a large number of job positions," said Zhang Yunchang, a first-level inspector at the Three Gorges Project Management Department of the Ministry of Water Resources.
The Han River Shipping Capacity Enhancement Project, with a total investment of about 209.16 billion yuan, is expected to attract large-scale investment in industries like new energy shipbuilding and circular chemicals upon completion, forming a cyclical driving model of "water transport infrastructure first, followed by industrial investment." The fifth phase of Guangzhou Port's Nansha Port Area project, with direct infrastructure investment of about 14.447 billion yuan, is projected to attract sustained investment from cross-border e-commerce and port-side equipment manufacturing enterprises upon completion, leveraging long-term investment in foreign trade and manufacturing... Major water transport projects, by driving upstream and downstream industrial demand through direct infrastructure investment and attracting related industrial clusters by leveraging shipping factor agglomeration capabilities, have become one of the important supports for China to expand effective investment and stabilize the basic demand profile.
Vigorously promoting the construction of major water transport projects is an important practice in China's targeted effort to resolve bottlenecks and choke points in the water transport network. It is beneficial for improving the functional layout of the national high-grade waterway network and world-class port clusters, accelerating the construction of a modern, high-quality national comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network.
Connecting the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau at one end and reaching the Hong Kong and Macao markets at the other, the Xijiang Shipping Main Line is the "golden waterway" for southwestern goods to reach the sea. As freight traffic in the Pearl River Basin has become increasingly busy, the navigation capacity of key nodes on the Xijiang Shipping Main Line has approached saturation.
In 2017, the capacity expansion and upgrade project for a 3,000-tonnage channel on the Xijiang River (Jieshou to Zhaoqing) was completed. In 2024, the second phase of the 3,000-tonnage channel project on the Xijiang Shipping Main Line from Guigang to Wuzhou was finished... The construction of capacity expansion and upgrade projects for the Xijiang Shipping Main Line continues to advance, moving towards the goal of a fully connected 3,000-tonnage channel.
The construction of major water transport projects brings significant improvements in transport capacity. In 2025, the annual cargo throughput of the Xijiang Ship Lock Joint Dispatch System reached 507 million tons, with the Changzhou Ship Lock handling 224 million tons of cargo, maintaining its position as the ship lock with the highest annual cargo throughput on domestic natural rivers.
Vigorously promoting the construction of major water transport projects is beneficial for fully leveraging water transport's comparative advantages of large capacity, low cost, and low energy consumption, effectively reducing overall social logistics costs.
Spreading out a map of China, the Yangtze River and the Huai River run north and south through Anhui province. In the past, these two largely parallel major rivers were separated by hills and could not be navigably connected.
On September 16, 2023, the Jianghuai Canal was fully opened for trial operation, achieving a "handshake" between the Yangtze and Huai rivers within Anhui province. The opening of the canal first brought tangible "logistics dividends."
Taking Fuyang Nanzhao Port as an example, after the canal opened, the voyage from Fuyang Nanzhao Port to Hefei Pahe Port is 247 kilometers, approximately 680 kilometers shorter than before, saving about 5 days. The voyage to Tongling Henggang Port Area is about 435 kilometers shorter than before, saving about 3 days.
The strengthening of transport capacity has driven a transformation in business development. "In the past, the port could only handle bulk cargo like building materials and grain. Now, it has switched to containers, and goods of various categories like furniture and home appliances can all be shipped by water," said Yang Feng, General Manager of Fuyang Yingzhou Port Co., Ltd.
Connecting rivers to the sea and linking internal and external routes, major water transport projects play a significant role in advancing China's high-level opening up.
To further unclog the water transport circulation and continuously support economic and social development, how will major water transport projects be constructed in the future?
"We will further eliminate bottlenecks and choke points in inland waterway shipping, focus on optimizing main trunk lines and major channels, build a modern high-grade waterway network, and enhance the capacity and function of port hubs," a relevant official from the Ministry of Transport stated. In the future, major water transport projects will be further upgraded and improved towards green, intelligent, and safe development directions. They will continue to leverage water transport's advantages of large capacity, low cost, and low energy consumption, laying a solid water transport foundation for accelerating the construction of a transportation powerhouse and achieving high-quality economic and social development during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period.
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