Map of the Binhai zone in the port city of Tianjin

In China, many are looking to so-called ‘bonded port areas’, as a tool to keep up decades of rapid growth. Lee Cheok Pin, Deputy GM of YCH Group, a Singapore-based logistics company. He is in charge of the firm’s Chinese branch in the northern port city of Tianjin.

Located in the Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone, his company has Dell and Motorola as some of its key manufacturing customers. The special location offers the company many preferential policies.

Lee Cheok Pin said ‘Besides the tax incentive, we work very closely with the free trade zone customs. They’ve granted us an incentive, what we call RFDL, Release First, Declare Later. With these incentive, we can operates 7 days, 24 hours each. And for any material that going out for Motorola, we can sent them out first and follow out with the documentation declarations. And that really helps us in improving our efficiency and effectiveness.’

With all the benefits gained from working in the free trade zone, YCH Group is looking to expand into China’s largest free-trade harbor area - the Tianjin Dongjiang Bonded Port Area — for more favorable policies.

Located in the Binhai New Area in the city, the bonded harbor area offers the most preferential policies in taxation and foreign exchange policies in the country.

The first phase of the area, covering four square kilometers, has started operations. It included warehouses, container terminals, processing and logistic zones. And it involves RMB6.6 billion ($900 million) in corporate investment.

The Dongjiang Bonded Port Area is scheduled to become fully operational by 2010, when the second phase is completed. The whole project will then be able to handle 4 million containers per year.
Source: CCTV.com

Thiis is, honestly, in Ningpo. Not your average Chinese bar.

In 1984, the State Council approved the establishment of the Ningbo Economic & Technical Development Zone (NETD) in the Beilun area as one of 14 State-level development zones. In the past decade, three other State-level development zones have emerged in the Beilun District.

Li Yonghui, vice party secretary of Beilun district of Ningbo, said, ‘Last year, gross domestic product (GDP) of Beilun District reached RMB47.6 billion ($6.3 billion), or $7,656 per capita, making it the richest area of Ningbo. In the first six months of this year, local GDP increased by another 13.1%. Disposable income of local residents rose almost 10% from a year earlier. Beilun District is becoming an important state-level base for energy and raw material.’

One of the government’s objectives is for Beilun District to  ‘enhance the district through the port’ and strive to double both the region’s GDP and fiscal income by 2011. By accomplishing that, Beilun Port, together with its surrounding area, will establish its strategic position in the Yangtze River Delta area.

Beilun map

In the middle of the Chinese coastline and facing the Pacific, Beilun Port hopes to use a unique geographic edge to become world famous. Its 18.2-meter water front depth can provide access for vessels of up to 250,000 tons fully loaded. And with the exception of occasional interruptions from typhoons, the port can be operated over 350 days in a year.

Li said, ‘In 2006, Beilun Port handled a total cargo throughput of 300 million tons, and has ranked second of all ports in China for seven years in a row, and fourth place in the world. At present, Beilun Port operates lines to more than 560 ports in over 90 countries and regions worldwide.’
Source: China Daily.com

Picturesque Shenyang

A bonded logistics centre is to be set up in Shenyang Offshore Economic Zone. Enterprises in Shenyang will only need to show their export invoices, declarations of goods and other documents to deal with duty drawback and duty exemption in accordance with the relevant provisions.

This will be a bonded logistics center as a special site monitored by customs. There are fairly strict requirements for setting up such a center:

The site is near seaports, airports, and inland transportation hubs.
Has large inland demand for international logistics.
Is equipped with customs agencies and is easy for the customs to carry out centralized monitoring.
Has security isolation facilities, video surveillance systems and other facilities in line with the requirements of customs.

Zhang Xinbo, deputy director of management committee of Shenyang Offshore Economic Zone, said Shenyang Bonded Logistics Center is located to the west of Tonghaichanye Road. Its general planning area is 10 square kilometers, with a total investment of RMB500 million.

The first phase is designed to cover an area of 0.5 square kilometers.

Much more on this HERE.
Source: Shenyang Evening News

Qingdao zone (QDTDZ)

This was one of the earliest zones being approved as state-level development zone in October 1984. The zone now has a population of 300,000.

It is on the west bank of the Jiaozhou Bay and, to give it its full name, the Qingdao Economic and Technological Development Zone (QETDZ), is about 24 kilometers to the city proper directly across the sea.

The Zone accesses downtown Qingdao through the 66-kilometer expressway that runs around the Jiaozhou Bay and by means of sea routes.

The Port of Qingdao is one of the largest five foreign trade ports of China. It was first built in 1892 and now has 15 wharves with 73 berths, 31 of which are capable of handling 10,000-ton. It has trade exchanges with over 450 ports of more than 130 countries and regions in the world.

QETDZ is 53 kilometers away from Qingdao International Airport.

The zone is served by the Jiaozhou-Huangdao Railway and the expressway around the Jiaozhou Bay.

The QETDZ specializes in electronics, household electric appliances, building materials, petrochemicals, machinery and pharmaceuticals and is, in effect, a series of zones working together.
Source: Chinese Business World

Located in Ningbo’s Beilun District, the Ningbo Economic and Technical Development Zone, one of China’s earliest (1984) and largest national development zones, currently covers an area of 29.6 square kilometers.

Among the 12,000 foreign enterprises present in Ningbo, about 1,400 are set up in the zone.

It is almost all things to all businesses — a bonded logistics zone, a free trade zone, an export processing zone and with the Ningbo Daxie island development zone located nearby.

Industries such as textiles and food processing, as well as automobiles, machinery and equipment manufacturing, have used the NETDZ as their preferred export base. In 2005 the GDP of the zone reached RMB23.40 billion while the total investment amounted to US$2.59 billion, and the contracted FDI was US$1.05 billion.

Now the NETDZ is placing more emphasis on the high-tech sector.

One of the main attractions is the port. Located in the middle of the Chinese coastline and facing the Pacific Ocean, Beilun Port hopes to use a unique geographic edge to become world famous. Its 18.2-meter water front depth can provide access for vessels of up to 250,000 tons fully loaded.
Source: China Briefing and Ningpo Life

[photopress:zones_tianj_international_airport_1.jpg,full,alignright]China’s State Council, the country’s Cabinet, has approved a new bonded zone in Tianjin, a further move to boost the opening-up strategy in the northern coastal municipality.

An official from the Tianjin Binhai New Area said the bonded zone covers an area of 195.63 hectares at the Airport Industrial Park.

The zone will enjoy favorable policies in taxation and foreign exchange policies. It will offer comprehensive services in international shipping, distribution, purchase, transit trade and export processing businesses.

The official said the preferential policies would benefit plants in the new bonded zone, including the Airbus A320 assembly plant that was approved by the National Development and Reform Commission in June 2006. It is expected to start operation in August.

The zone will attract more aviation manufacturing enterprises and help establish an air freight center in north China.
Source: China Daily

[photopress:zones_qinhzhou.jpg,full,alignright]Application has been made by the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southwest China for permission to construct a bonded port zone in Qinzhou city, the sixth such zone in the country.

Local news reports said the regional government had submitted the application to eight state governmental departments including the General Administration of Customs, the Ministry of Land and Resources and State Development and Reform Commission for founding the bonded port zones.

The application is widely expected to be formally approved by the State Council, and if it does, Qinzhou will join the bonded port zones of Shanghai Yangshan, Tianjin Dongjiang, Dalian Dayaowan, Hainan Yangpu Port and Zhejiang Meishan.

Guangxi is the province on Guangdong’s western border and close to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) became each other’s fourth-largest trading partners last year. Total bilateral trade between China and ASEAN grew 25.9% last year to $202.5 billion, with the trade between Guangxi and ASEAN topping $2.91 billion last year.

Ports in the Beibu Gulf handed 274,200 TEUs last year.

Guangxi plans to build Qinzhou city into an international shipping centre in 10-15 years.
Source: CargoNews Asia