About 160 kilometers eastward from Wuhan, the surging Yangtze River suddenly came to an end, scouring out a deep water harbor on the north bank. This is Wuxue, an important water transportation town planned by Dr. Sun Yat sen in the General Plan for the Founding of the People's Republic of China.
In 1876, Wuxue Wharf in Guangji County was opened as a port and quickly became a commercial resort, known as "Little Hankou".
In 1987, Guangji was renamed Wuxue City in the millennium, starting the historical process of transforming into an industrial city. With the advantage of water transportation, a number of excellent industrial enterprises have accelerated their growth, represented by Guangji Pharmaceutical and Xiangyun Co., Ltd.
Today, facing the development opportunity of speeding up the construction of a national pilot area for building a new development pattern and building a thoroughfare of nine provinces in the new era, what should Wuxue do? "Code from First, to 'build a port', take the port as a medium, gather production with the port, link the Beijing Kowloon railway and the golden waterway, and build a sea port in the Dabie Mountains. " Hu Hao, secretary of Wuxue Municipal Party Committee, said.
From delivering millions of passengers to transporting billions of tons of goods——
Dock culture promotes urban transformation
"At the peak, the line for buying tickets was several hundred meters long." Wu Xiao, the chief engineer of Wuxue Transportation Bureau, still remembers that year.
In the second half of last century, ships were the main passenger transport mode along the Yangtze River. Due to the good water depth, Wuxue is the only stop for most passenger ships from Wuhan to Anqing. At peak hours, there are more than 10 routes, which send millions of passengers annually.
With the rise of railways and automobiles, passenger ships gradually declined. In 2003, the last regular liner left Wuxue. The waiting hall, once noisy with Han and Wu dialects, has become a children's skating rink. The old street with numerous shops has also become a riverside park full of tourists, leaving only a giant anchor sculpture, still telling the old days.
However, the aggressive wharf culture has penetrated into the bone marrow of Wuxue people, promoting them to chase the tide of the times and establish one after another famous industrial enterprises.
In 1991, He Mi, then the director of Guangji Pharmaceutical Factory, went to Moscow to invite local experts and his experimental strains back to Wuxue. After more than three years of hard work, Guangji Pharmaceutical successfully transformed the top technical achievements of vitamin B production into a leader in the industry and was successfully listed in 1999.
Hu Huawen, the head of Xiangyun Co., Ltd., also has this kind of aggressive spirit. In 2000, at the age of 33, he took the post through competition and took the helm of the company. One year to make up for losses and three years to build a new Xiangyun, he fulfilled his promise. In 2022, Xiangyun will become the first industrial enterprise in Huanggang with an output value of more than 10 billion yuan.
"The development and growth of these enterprises can not be separated from the convenience and cost advantages brought by the docks." Wu Xiao said that Guangji County moved the county seat from the northern mountainous areas to the south of the river just after the founding of New China. When the passenger terminals gradually decline, one enterprise after another has built their own freight terminals instead, which are arrayed along the Yangtze River.
Since 2018, Wuxue has strengthened the integration of wharves, reducing 54 wharves to 13, and increasing the number of high piled berths for ships of more than 5000 tons all year round to 7, greatly increasing the loading capacity. In 2023, the throughput of Wuxue Port will exceed 100 million tons for the first time.
From serving oneself to serving others——
The terminal "evolved" into a multimodal transport port
There are hidden worries behind the bright data. "The goods shipped out account for 90% of the total, indicating that the role of the port is far from being played," Hu Hao said.
In those years, various enterprises of Wuxue competed to seize the best shoreline resources. Where is the wharf that is hard to "hit" for others to use? Without sufficient public resources, the external service capacity of Wuxue Port is greatly limited, which also compresses the development space of local enterprises.
On June 9, 2023, the commencement of Wuxue Port Area's iron water intermodal transport project marks that the wharf for our use has finally evolved into a port serving others. "This will be the first time for the Beijing Kowloon Railway to realize hard connection with the Golden Waterway on the north bank of the Yangtze River." Guo Rui, general manager of Wuxue Port Area Multimodal Transport Investment Development Co., Ltd., said that the project includes a comprehensive wharf with six berths and an 18.37 km special railway line connecting Limu Station of the Beijing Kowloon Railway, with a total investment of about 3.6 billion yuan, and aims to be completed and put into use in advance by the end of next year.
"The layout of the rail water intermodal transport project is not only to reduce the logistics costs in Huanggang, but also to open up the sea ports of the whole Dabie Mountain region, including southeast Henan and southwest Anhui, and to do their part to promote the double cycle." The Wuxue Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government are open minded and have a clear attitude.
At the project commencement ceremony, guests from Huangchuan County, Henan Province were seated in the front row. "Our county has advantageous industries such as grain, feather decoration and poultry meat. Every year, nearly ten million tons of goods are exported. The transportation cost can be reduced by 20% when the goods are transferred from the railway to the river through Wuxue," said Liu Shenghua, deputy director of the Administrative Committee of Huangchuan Development Zone.
The feasibility study has also been started for the iron water intermodal logistics park with an investment of 10 billion yuan and an area of 6000 mu, which mainly focuses on cold chain storage, logistics transit and other functions. Hainan Ausca grain and oil, Shandong high-speed rail and other bulk material processing projects have long been eyeing this treasure.
Enterprises are also transforming to service. Minben Group, a building materials enterprise, founded Minben Yilian Company to build a shipping service platform for the whole society based on its huge freight volume and terminal resources. It went online in March last year, and now has more than 1200 certified ships. "Docks, goods, ships and supporting services can give full play to the best efficiency of ports only through the integration of platform companies," said Zhang Xujian, general manager of the company.
Extending from making low-end money to middle and high-end industries——
New Bureau of Hong Kong Industry Integration and Exhibition Industry
The pace of building a modern port industry system in Wuxue began to accelerate with the idea of managing ports to manage industries.
On December 22, 2023, the construction of Hubei Intelligent New Energy Ship Industrial Park will start in Longping Town, Wuxue. The project has a total investment of 10 billion yuan, mainly engaged in new ship manufacturing, traditional ship refitting, marine supporting and marine engineering equipment, and has been listed as a provincial key project.
The industrial park adopts an advanced supply chain model. The park provides basic services such as die-casting, painting and slipway. Enterprises can minimize investment and improve production efficiency. At present, many enterprises such as Dalian Jinhai, Baichuan Energy and Xinwangda Electronics have signed contracts to settle in. "Once the project is completed, a 10000 ton new energy ship will be launched every week, with an estimated annual output value of 10 billion yuan." Li Han, the mayor of Longping Town, said happily at the project construction site.
"The development concept of enterprises is also changing significantly, from relying on the advantages of water transportation to earn low-end money, to actively build supply chains, integrate resources and extend to the middle and high-end industries." Cha Jun, Mayor of Wuxue City, said that the city disburses no less than 50 million yuan of special funds every year, encouraging enterprises to accelerate transformation and promote the growth of new quality productivity.
On April 16, at the construction site of Sinochem New Xiangyun New Material Industrial Park, there were many pile drivers and the construction was in full swing. The project is jointly invested by the central enterprise China Wuhuan and Xiangyun Co., Ltd. with a total investment of 25.5 billion yuan, including phosphorus chemical industry, fluorine chemical industry and coal chemical industry, which will completely change the industrial pattern of Xiangyun Co., Ltd.
The traditional building materials industry has undergone a butterfly change. Guoding Huaming has cooperated with the National Ultra fine Powder Engineering Research Center of East China University of Science and Technology, and its products have jumped from gravel aggregate to food grade nano calcium carbonate. Minben Group deeply cultivates calcium oxide, and its products are exported to Africa.
"We will firmly grasp the core advantages of the port, find the right position in Hubei's construction of an important hub of domestic and international double circulation, and strive to achieve the goal of planning one area from the overall situation and serving the overall situation with one area," Hu Hao said.
