The first voyage after the official opening of the anchorage on Lantau Island (pictured)

The picture shows customs officers supervising the first export business after formal acceptance at the anchorage on Lantau Island. Photo by Zhang Hailong

Recently, a semi submersible transport ship carrying key equipment for the West African port expansion project successfully set sail from the anchorage on Lantau Island in Guangzhou Port under the supervision of Huangpu Old Port Customs, which is under the jurisdiction of Huangpu Customs. This operation is the first export operation completed by the Lantau anchorage after the expanded opening of the port of Guangzhou Port passed the official acceptance of the state, marking that the Lantau anchorage has officially entered the normal operation stage, creating an efficient and convenient new maritime channel for China's infrastructure "going out to sea" and supporting the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road".

An anchorage is a water area where ships anchor on the water for shelter, navigation, and cargo transfer. Lantau Anchorage, located in the waters of the the Pearl River Estuary, is one of the largest production anchors with the best water depth in the Pearl River Delta port group. It can support the load reduction, lighterage, semi submersible loading and unloading of large equipment, clean fuel replenishment and other operations of 150000 tonnage and above super large ships. It is an important hub for river sea intermodal transport in the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Bay Area. With the deepening of the construction of the Greater Bay Area, there is an increasing demand for large ships to reduce loading and repackage here, and then be connected to the dock by small boats. In December of this year, the anchorage of Lantau Island was officially incorporated into the Guangzhou Port, achieving normalized opening.

This normalized operation not only optimizes the functional layout of Guangzhou Port, but also injects new momentum into the coordinated development of the Greater Bay Area port cluster. It is expected to add over 10 million tons of foreign trade cargo throughput capacity every year, "said Feng Weidong, General Manager of Guangzhou Port Shipping Co., Ltd.

It is reported that the semi submersible vessel that set sail this time is carrying key infrastructure equipment and dock facilities components required for port expansion projects in West Africa, such as Conakry, with a total weight of over 5700 tons. After the official opening of the Lantau Island anchorage, enterprises can directly complete loading operations at the anchorage, providing a more stable and efficient "sea going" channel for the export of large offshore equipment.

To ensure the smooth progress of the first order operation, Huangpu Laogang Customs actively provides advanced services and relies on the independently developed "Anchor Smart Supervision Platform" to provide "one-stop" services for enterprises. All links such as ship entry and exit, cargo declaration, and port operation planning are processed online, ensuring that equipment is "inspected upon arrival at the anchor and released upon completion of inspection". In the regulatory process, Huangpu Laogang Customs deepens the collaborative linkage between "customs and port enterprises", implements one-time boarding, inspection, and release for anchorage operations, and comprehensively uses 5G video, intelligent recognition and other technological means to achieve "remote+on-site" precise supervision. While building a strong defense line at the port, it minimizes the impact on on-site operations and improves overall customs clearance efficiency. (Pu Xuan/Text)