In ancient times, Pingtan, an island city off E China’s Fujian province, was isolated by the sea due to inconvenient transportation. Islanders live off the sea by fishing and mariculture. Pingtan Island earned the reputation of “home to shipping in China” from the early days when the islanders adventured into the deep blue with only shabby boats.

Compared with the land area of only 392.92 square kilometers, Pingtan’s sea area reaches 6064 square kilometers. The island is not only the junction between the two economic plates of Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia but also the central island of the economic circle on both sides of the Taiwan Straits.

Recorded ferry service can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty (618 to 907 A.D.).  Some bays with flat terrains were used to transport horses and other supplies. The first port in Pingtan lies in the northwest of Zhongmen Village.

In Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644 A.D.), small-scale maritime transportation was resumed after the sea ban was relaxed. In Qing Dynasty (1636-1912 A.D.), more ferry ports joined in, reaching 10. In 1929, Pingtan ship merchants raised funds to get 3 passenger and cargo ships, regularly sailing inside and outside the province.

Since the reform and opening-up in 1978, the state-run model has been reformed. A private shipping consortium took initial shape.

“Villagers got involved in the shipping transport industry and chipped in for ships, mostly wooden ships with a capacity of 100 tons.” According to Gao Juquan, president of the Pingtan Shipowners Association, after the 1990s, they were replaced by iron ships and the capacity increased to 1,000 tons, and more fishing villages turned into "shipping villages."

Although affected by the fluctuating global market, the overall shipping capacity is on the rise. At present, Pingtan’s ships have a combined capacity of 18 million dwt.

Zhengli Offshore Engineering Co., Ltd. was a family workshop that later evolved into a professional marine construction enterprise engaged in offshore wind turbine installation, submarine cable laying, high-altitude and underwater construction, and operation and maintenance of wind farms.

According to the statistics of Pingtan Shipowners' Association, the development of Pingtan's shipping industry has created more than 130,000 jobs. 30,000 family investors gain over 10 billion yuan annually.

However, for Pingtan, the thriving maritime shipping industry was a picture of “flowers inside the wall while fragrances outside.”

Take the data in 2015 as an example, the shipping business operated by Pingtanese accounted for a whopping capacity of 12 million dwt. Yet, only 13 of these shipping companies with 37 ships and 360,000 dwt were registered in Pingtan.

The wide disparity leads to an enormous loss of tax revenue for Pingtan.

The solution appeared in 2014 when Pingtan rolled out incentives to accelerate their homecoming.

Pingtan Minghui Shipping Co., Ltd. was one of the first companies to return. At the end of 2014, the company moved its headquarters back. In just a few years, the company continued to grow. Today, it has a total capacity of over 200,000 tons.

"Over the past 6 years, Pingtan has endowed us with 14.6 million yuan in rewards and subsidies," Shi Xiaoming, chairman of Pingtan Minghui Shipping Co., Ltd.

By 2021, there were 137 shipping companies, 452 ships, and 5.25 million deadweight tons registered in Pingtan, an increase of 15.7 times, 20.3 times, and 36.3 times, respectively, compared with 2014 before the introduction of the preferential policies. Pingtan's total transportation capacity ranks first in the province.

The economic and trade pattern is changing amidst the adverse impact of Covid. The shipowners rise to the challenge.

Wei Keqin, head of Jiuchen Holding Group Co., Ltd. in Pingtan, seeks a breakthrough in the industry. "Early this year, Tianjin completed the first bonded entrepot business of crude oil, which relieved the financial pressure of terminal customers and reduced the logistics cost." Wei Keqin believes that there are superimposed preferential policies from Pingtan’s unique status as the first comprehensive pilot zone for cross-Straits integration and the second international tourism island on the mainland and a free trade zone, Pingtan should borrow the experience of developed regions, so that Pingtan will develop its industry with its own feature.

The fact is that Pingtan authorities are making a move. Last October, Pingtan set up a task group for the shipping industry and planned to build a digital service platform integrating cargo owners, logistics, and finance.

Prior to that, a local shipping company pioneered the ambition.

The app “Xiechuan Network” was launched in Pingtan in July 2017, where shipowners and cargo owners can conduct online transactions in only 3 minutes. General Manager Chen Renqiang introduced that more than 6,000 enterprises settled on the platform, with more than 190,000 registered users and nearly 18,000 registered ships as of the beginning of this year.

"We are stepping up the construction of a modern and intelligent security management pattern and promoting the formation of a sound service system," said the relevant person in charge of the Investment Promotion Committee of Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone.

The Committee signed a contract to build a digital supply chain service platform on March 15. After the project is implemented, the platform aims to build the first 100-billion-yuan industrial chain in Pingtan.

Source: Fujian Daily

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