Taicang Container Lines Co., Ltd

Taicang Container Lines Co., Ltd

Taicang Port, located on the south bank of the Yangtze River estuary, is the place where Zheng He started to sail west for seven times, the state-designated container trunk line port on the north wing of Shanghai International Shipping Center and also a big and key foreign trade port built by Jiangsu Province. To speed up the development and construction of Taicang Port and strive to make it an important platform and support point for Jiangsu’s economic transition, upgrading and development, Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government made a scientific decision and had Jiangsu Communications Holdings Co., Ltd. and other five state-owned enterprises invested RMB 500 million jointly in incorporating the Taicang Container Lines Co., Ltd., which mainly deals in international ship container liner trade, container leasing, ship leasing, sales of ships and containers, etc.

Taicang Container Lines Co., Ltd., based on Taicang Port, now has opened the Taicang-Japan, Taicang- South Korea and Taicang-Taiwan lines. The company has two liners to Japanese Kanto per week; one liner to Japanese Kansai; one liner to South Korea; and two liners to Japanese Kanto; totaling six liners weekly, which is the best liner density performance in the history of Taicang Port. At present, the company has seven container ships including TAI CANG HE and TAI CANG HU, with a total deadweight of 44,000 tons and 3,300 slots.

By the end of the first half year of 2012, the company had completed 145 lines and 81,246 standard import and export container volume accumulatively, and achieved a ship operating rate of 98%, operation revenue of 110 million yuan and total assets of 574 million yuan.

It just takes three days for the container liners of the company to arrive at Japan from Taicang Port, so the company can meet the demands of most foreign trade businesses. As Taicang Port enjoys complete and favorable policies, supply of goods for export increases rapidly and Taicang Port boasts big export goods increase potentials. Export on Taicang Port to Japanese Kanto and Kansai lines turned on a gradual increase trend during January and June 2012; and the actual load rate on these two lines increased from 30% in January to about 75%. Export container volume increases also on Taicang – South Korea line, the actual load rate rose from about 40% in January to about 65% while the import actual load rate has stabilized as 85%. Export container volume on Taicang-Taiwan line enhances stably, too, and the actual load rate was up from 46% from January to about 70%.

Why when the export container volumes of other shipping companies decline generally, ours rises? The most important reason is our company regards quality service, extension service, closer cooperation, strengthening cargo collection and punctual liners as its life, sets up a concept of “Serving Customers Heart and Soul” firmly but not plunders source of goods through lowering prices; the second reason is that Taicang Port enjoys an obvious cost advantage. It takes three hours less for container trucks to arrive at Taicang Port than Shanghai Waigaoqiao from Suzhou Industrial Park and five hours less than Yangshan Port, and thus the trucking fees can be saved by 15% and 40% respectively (300 to 800 yuan/TEU); and it takes two hours and four hours less for container trucks to arrive at Taicang Port than Shanghai Waigaoqiao and Yangshan Port respectively from Kunshan Industrial Park, saving trucking fees by 20% and 50% respectively (400-950 yuan/TEU). Taicang Port enjoys lower comprehensive logistics costs. The third reason is Taicang enjoys a policy advantage. Firstly, Taicang Port implements a rapid customs clearance mode of “Zone-Port Interaction, Virtual Port”, which can save not only time but also coasts. It is more convenient and rapid for goods to pass Taicang Port in terms of customs clearance, customs inspection, check, delivery, etc. Secondly, customs drawback in Taicang Port is rapid. It costs two to three months generally in Shanghai to finish this, while it costs only two to three weeks in Taicang. In this way, enterprise funds are withdrawn more rapidly from circulation and financial costs is greatly reduced. Recently, ten more policy measures promoting trade facilitation have been launched in Taicang Port. Three service centers have been established in Suzhou Industrial Park, High-tech Zone and Kunshan Development Zone to help enterprises to collect goods; a “Water-free Port” is built in Suzhou Industrial Park and a Port Centralized Inspection Center and an Information Center have also been set up to further facilitate the enterprises to ship goods and be cleared by the customs. To ship goods of Suzhou, Kunshan and Taicang regions from Taicang will take one day less than from Shanghai. Therefore, in the past six or more months since we opened our lines, our import and export container volumes have been increased month by month. At present, our export actual load rate has reached 75% to 80%, far better than that of our peers.

To see our members, click here