Areas spur Lingang Industrial Zone's development

The Lingang New City and the Yangshan Bonded Port Park are two important driving the development of the Lingang Industrial Zone (Shanghai Port-based Industrial Zone).

Lingang New City

Lingang New City is one of the six major industrial bases and three new cities designed by the Shanghai municipal government four years ago and a key project under the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-10).

Covering a total area of nearly 300 sq km, Lingang New City in Nanhui District stretches from the Dazhi River in the north to the mouth of the Yangtze River and Hangzhou Bay in the south and east, and its western part meets the A30 Highway.

Construction of the new city, with its unique geographical advantage, is a strategic step towards Shanghai's goal of building an international shipping center by 2020.

Aimed at realizing an economic leap and sustainable development, the project is expected to expand Shanghai's development space, improve the structure of Shanghai's satellite towns and industries, and enhance its general competitiveness in the manufacturing and service fields.

Meanwhile, it is also an important project to help the city realize its goal to be an international metropolis.

The design of the new city follows the characteristics of modern cities in the 21st century, with an ideal environment featuring a harmonious relationship between human beings and nature.

The new city will be divided into five functional parts - the main city area, the heavy equipment industry area, and the logistics, main industry and multi-purpose areas.

The main city area will cover an area of 74 sq km.

The heavy equipment industrial area will focus on manufacturing complete sets of special purpose heavy-duty equipment.

The Bonded Port and Logistics Park, together covering an area of 18.7 sq km, are expected to attract well-known companies to set up their offices and factories there, while the 101.6-sq-km main industrial area will be a development zone of comprehensive eco-friendly industries.

Yangshan Bonded Port

Yangshan Bonded Port, the first such port to be approved by the State Council, is one of the core function areas developed in the course of Shanghai's bid to become an international navigation center.

The port is expected to play a strategic role in the economic development of Shanghai, said Liu Jiaping, deputy director of the Administrative Committee of Lingang New City, Shanghai.

Construction of the port has witnessed rapid progress this year, as it aims to establish an industrial structure dominated by the service economy, Liu noted.

The port's infrastructural construction and supporting facilities including roads, bridges, lawns and public facilities have been completed.

A 160,000-sq-m modern bonded logistics warehouse has been completed and put into operation. Another two-storey bonded logistics warehouse covering an area of 200,000 sq m is expected to complete by the end of this year.

The port is expected to be a modern logistics terminal in Lingang region. The first phase of the 90,000-sq-m Lingang Bonded Management Service Center, regarded as the core facility in the park, will be completed and go into operation next year.

With the support of the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission, a new logistics technology called RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) will be used for the first time in the pork by the end of this year and will be phased in into other areas later. It is expected to help improve the information technology level of the bonded port park.

The port is accelerating its steps to provide value-added logistics services to the machinery and electronics, high-end IT, automobile spare parts, fine chemicals and international futures delivery industries.

The port is also striving to develop its port logistics structure system involving international transfers, purchase, distribution, transit trading, exhibition, export processing and offshore finance.

The port has so far attracted projects with a combined value of over 3 billion yuan and expects to sign more contracts with enterprises from both home and abroad.

Logistics parks and Heavy Equipment Industrial Park

Apart from the new city and the bonded port park, the Yangshan Deepwater Port, with a designed cargo handling capacity of 5.5 million containers by the end of this year, is expected to push the development of Lingang Logistics Park to a new stage, said Zhu Weiqiang, vice president of Shanghai Lingang Economic Development (Group) Co Ltd and manager of International Logistics Development Co Ltd.

Covering 21.4 sq km in the port-based industrial zone in Shanghai, the Lingang Logistics Park consists of three areas: the Bonded Port Park, the International Logistics Park and Warehouse and Transshipment Park.

Focusing on auto and auto spare parts, electronic products, machinery, chemical engineering and consumer goods, the park has attracted the attention of domestic and overseas enterprises, with some of them already settled in it, Zhu said.

Shanghai Lingang International Logistics Development Co Ltd, which is in charge of development and management of the international logistics sector in the zone, has built a 50,000-sq m warehouse and already put it into operation.

Several well-known logistics companies, like Germany's DHL, have set up offices in the international logistics park managed by the company, which will draw more enterprises interested in building standard warehouses there, Zhu pointed out.

The Bonded Port Park was the first in the zone to be approved by the State Council and sets a shining example for those following it, Zhu added.

Preferential policies offered by the government are a big support to the park's further development and the upgrading of functions, he noted.

The Heavy Equipment Industrial Park has also drawn a number of domestic and overseas companies, including SAIC Motor Corporation, Kaishan Group, Hu Dong Heavy Machinery, Kalmar Industries, and Lenze Drive System.

The Heavy Equipment Industrial Park and the International Logistics Park, which are major industrial areas as well as key international logistics bases, are major construction projects of the Shanghai municipal government under the city's 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10).

The Logistics Park will be developed into one of the biggest international logistics centers in the Asia-Pacific region and is even expected to be the largest in the world.

It focuses on international transfers, distribution, purchase and transit trade, and will drive the development of the region, Zhu said.

Construction of the Bonded Port was decided upon in cooperation with AT Kearney, a world famous consultant company, in 2003. Discussion of project details, analysis of further industrial development of the port and of solutions to likely problems helped Lingang Logistics make its future construction plan.

(China Daily 11/27/2007 page24)