Chongqing Port and Logistics Group, the parent of Cuntan container terminal, announced recently that starting from 1 July the local government would provide subsidies for all freight forwarders and barge operators using the terminal. The new measure will have a trial run for one year.

Built on hilly terrain and with a long jetty to accommodate a average tidal drop of at least 18 metres, the terminal was expensive to construct and this is reflected in high loading and unloading charges. The government subsidies will, to some extent, help make the terminal more competitive, according to port officials.

For a 20-foot empty container, the government will provide a subsidy of Rmb31, about 13 per cent of the total loading and unloading fee of Rmb237; for a 40-foot loaded container, the government will provide a subsidy of Rmb365, nearly 35 per cent of the total charges of Rmb1,065. For containers coming from the upstream ports of Yibing and Luzhou for transhipment in Cuntan, charges will be made only for unloading, not loading.

Throughput at Cuntan is expected to total 580,000 TEU this year, up from 500,000 TEU last year, and rising to 750,000 TEU in 2012. The port group’s deputy general manager Huang Ji said that it needed to work harder to attract container volumes from Yunnan and Guizhou provinces so that the proportion of transhipment volumes could be increased to 25 per cent, up from less than 20 per cent today.