Cargo throughput on the Yangtze River, excluding Shanghai, may exceed 30 per cent in the next two to three years, the managing director of Maersk China will tell delegates at the 2011 Yangtze Business Network conference in Shanghai on 31 March.

As transportation services on the river have become cheaper, more reliable and faster, says Mr Jens Eskelund, production in inland locations becomes more competitive, which in turn creates a bigger market for the transportation chain. “We believe this is a virtuous circle which will provide for consistently high growth for quite a few years to come,” he will say.

However, he identifies a number of challenges regarding the transportation of goods on the river.
First, during the dry season between December and March, fully laden barges are often unable to pass stretches of the river where the draught is below 3.4 metres; in the Hubei port of Jingzhou, for example, the average dry season draught is 2.8 metres.

Another issue is the lack of direct services between Chongqing and Yangshan, which means that Maersk Line is forced to shuttle containers between Shanghai Waigaoqiao and Yangshan, which adds to costs and time delays.