Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Forward Thinking

Rollin' on the river—the Yangtze, that is

With manufacturing and consumer demand moving steadily westward in China, that nation's rivers are fast becoming the mode of choice for transporting raw materials and finished goods.

With manufacturing and consumer demand moving steadily westward in China, that nation's rivers are fast becoming the mode of choice for transporting raw materials and finished goods. To reach fast-growing inland population centers like Chongqing and Wuhan, for example, the Yangtze River is the most efficient route, says consultant Jon Monroe, a well-known observer of logistics in China.

As part of an ambitious infrastructure development plan, the Chinese government has been investing in container terminals on major rivers as well as docks for river barges at coastal ports like Shanghai, Monroe said at the Coalition of New England Companies for Trade (CONECT) Annual Northeast Trade & Transportation Conference in Newport, Rhode Island, USA. Those efforts already are showing results: In 2000, Chongqing (population: 30 million) handled no ocean containers at all. In 2007, 230,000 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) passed through the city's new handling facilities, he said.


It's not just the government that's investing in river transportation. According to Monroe, beverage manufacturer Anheuser-Busch has built its own multimodal terminal on the Yangtze in Wuhan, and the global ocean carrier Maersk Line now operates dedicated barges to and from Shanghai.

The Yangtze may face some serious competition once a new Chongqing- Shanghai rail line and a new east-west highway are completed at the end of this year. But Monroe predicts that river transportation will still remain cost competitive, particularly once work on the Three Gorges Dam is finished, allowing larger barges to journey farther upriver.

To illustrate how far river transportation has come in the past quarter century, consultant Herb Rothstein, who spoke on the panel with Monroe, displayed a photo he had taken in 1983 of a woman in a tiny boat piled high with loose cases of shoes, on a river near what is now the Port of Yantian. Today, Yantian is a bustling container port that handles some 10 million containers per year.

Recent

More Stories

DHL online shopper report

DHL report shows seven factors about American online shoppers

Online merchants should consider seven key factors about American consumers in order to optimize their sales and operations this holiday season, according to a report from DHL eCommerce.

First, many of the most powerful sales platforms are marketplaces. With nearly universal appeal, 99% of U.S. shoppers buy from marketplaces, ranked in popularity from Amazon (92%) to Walmart (68%), eBay (47%), Temu (32%), Etsy (28%), and Shein (21%).

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

storm track forecast map hurricane rafael

Louisiana and Texas watch Hurricane Rafael approach

Gulf Coast businesses in Louisiana and Texas are keeping a watchful eye on the latest storm to emerge from the Gulf Of Mexico this week, as Hurricane Rafael nears Cuba.

The island nation today is bracing for storm surge, high winds, and destructive waves, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC) at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Keep ReadingShow less
white house

Business groups push back on Trump tariff plan

In the face of campaign pledges by Donald Trump to boost tariffs on imports, many U.S. business interests are pushing back on that policy plan following Trump’s election yesterday as president-elect.

U.S. firms are already rushing to import goods before the promised tariff increases take effect, to avoid potential cost increases. That’s because tariffs are paid by the domestic companies that order the goods, not by the foreign nation that makes them.

Keep ReadingShow less
clorox brands

Clorox partnership helps suppliers meet carbon reduction targets

Consumer packaged goods (CPG) provider The Clorox Co. has partnered with Manufacture 2030 (M2030) to help Clorox's suppliers meet their carbon reduction targets and advance the company's long-term goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

In addition to its flagship Clorox bleach product, Oakland, California-based Clorox manages a diverse catalog of brands including Hidden Valley Ranch, Glad, Pine-Sol, Burt’s Bees, Kingsford, Scoop Away, Fresh Step, 409, Brita, Liquid Plumr, and Tilex.

Keep ReadingShow less
U.S. map showing drought risk

Everstream Analytics quantifies how climate risk affects supply chains

Supply chain risk analytics company Everstream Analytics has launched a product that can quantify the impact of leading climate indicators and project how identified risk will impact customer supply chains.

Expanding upon the weather and climate intelligence Everstream already provides, the new “Climate Risk Scores” tool enables clients to apply eight climate indicator risk projection scores to their facilities and supplier locations to forecast future climate risk and support business continuity.

Keep ReadingShow less