From 3.5 kilometers to 500 meters - Port 'flow' continues to transform into 'increment' within the area

In winter, the coast of the Yellow Sea is cold and chilly, but there is a surging development trend in the Rizhao Comprehensive Bonded Zone.

On January 26th, the first container truck loaded with aquatic products slowly entered the East Checkpoint freight channel. The intelligent vehicle recognition system instantly completed license plate recognition and regulatory data verification, and then automatically released it in just a few seconds. This marks the official completion of the "golden channel" connecting Rizhao Comprehensive Bonded Zone and Rizhao Port at zero distance. The logistics distance between the two places has been reduced from 3.5 kilometers to 500 meters, and the new open pattern of "integrated district and port, seamless connection" is accelerating along the coast of the Yellow Sea.

Since its closure and operation in July 2019, the Rizhao Comprehensive Bonded Zone has relied on its core advantage of "being close to the sea and the port" to gather 300 enterprises in a 1.01 square kilometer area, with port related enterprises accounting for over 90%, forming an industrial pattern dominated by bonded processing, logistics trade, and ship supply services. In 2025, the total import and export value of the first line of Rizhao Comprehensive Bonded Zone will be 6.88 billion yuan, and it will become an important platform for regional open economy with its highly compatible bulk cargo import and export business with Rizhao Port.

Although Rizhao Comprehensive Bonded Zone and Rizhao Port are geographically adjacent, they are limited by early planning and have a spatial separation of "one road apart". Looking at Rizhao Port across the road, but the goods of enterprises in the zone have to detour 3.5 kilometers to enter and exit, don't worry too much! "Said Lv Xiangang, Deputy Director of the Development Bureau of the Free Trade Zone

The original Sika Port had 10 channels, and by 2025, the number of vehicles entering and exiting has reached 174000, which is 2.7 times that of 2024, making it difficult to meet the surging logistics needs of enterprises. The long logistics distance not only imposes a significant transportation cost on each ton of goods, but also poses a risk of demurrage for some urgent orders, becoming a bottleneck that restricts the expansion and efficiency of enterprises.

The urgent difficulties and worries of enterprises are the driving force of customs services. The Rizhao Customs under Qingdao Customs and the Rizhao Comprehensive Bonded Zone Management Committee formed a joint working group to conduct a one month "immersive" research. The working group not only contacted more than 20 key enterprises one by one, conducted on-site surveys of transportation routes and calculated logistics costs, but also held multiple symposiums to listen to their demands. Eventually, they identified the three core obstacles of "long transportation distance, low customs clearance efficiency, and high connection costs" and formed a specific list of problems.

In response to the traffic demand of large freight vehicles in enterprises, combined with the geographical location characteristics of the district and port, the joint working group innovatively proposed a solution of "intelligent checkpoint+exclusive channel": a new east checkpoint will be built on the side of the comprehensive bonded zone near the port, with two in and two out cargo channels, one in and one out for bonded and non bonded channels, and a 5-meter net height limit pole will be provided to meet the traffic demand of container trucks and bulk cargo vehicles; Synchronize the construction of a dedicated channel for vehicles in the district and port, achieving a "direct connection" between the East Checkpoint of the Comprehensive Bonded Zone and Gate 7 of Rizhao Port, and making logistics vehicle transportation more efficient. At the same time, Dongkou integrates intelligent functions such as license plate automatic recognition, intelligent reading of container numbers, and real-time comparison of regulatory data, achieving "seamless customs clearance and automatic release".

We have calculated that by reducing transportation costs by more than 3 yuan per ton, we can save over 4 million yuan annually on logistics costs alone, and significantly improve order delivery efficiency! "Said Dou Chong, the person in charge of Shandong Ronghai Mining Co., Ltd. The opening of Dongkou not only benefits leading enterprises such as Ronghai Mining, but also allows all Hong Kong related enterprises in the area to share policy dividends.

According to estimates, the annual comprehensive logistics costs of enterprises in the entire region will be reduced by more than 80 million yuan. The deeper significance lies in the seamless connection between the district and the port, which will drive the comprehensive upgrading of the industrial level. Rizhao Port can expand its bonded logistics and processing business with the help of the 240000 square meter high standard warehouse building in the comprehensive bonded zone. The comprehensive bonded zone can attract more port related processing and manufacturing enterprises to settle in through the integrated investment model of the district and the port. It is expected to add more than 5 billion yuan of port related import and export business in the near future, and is expected to exceed 10 billion yuan in the long term, achieving efficient transformation from "port traffic" to "industrial increment".

Liu Kunming, Deputy Director of Rizhao Customs, stated that Rizhao Customs will focus on key areas such as bulk commodity logistics, processing, and cross-border e-commerce near the port, continuously deepen "customs local cooperation", fully unleash policy advantages, promote innovative regulatory models such as "one ticket, multiple vehicles" and "direct transfer within the area", improve the smart regulatory system, promote the transformation of the park from a "logistics hub" to an "industrial highland", and continuously transform port "traffic" into "increment" within the area. This will lay a solid foundation for the opening up of the Rizhao Port Industry City Integration Development Pilot Zone and write a new chapter of high-level opening up to the outside world in the first year of the 15th Five Year Plan. (Yu Changwei, Li Zhihong, Cui Xuehui/Wen)