Xiamen Ocean Gate Container Terminal is China's first fully automated container terminal. [Photo provided to ftz.xm.gov.cn]
Inside the Xiamen Free Trade Zone, cargo moves smoothly through China's first fully automated container terminal, Xiamen Ocean Gate Container Terminal, along with global logistics hubs and a cross-border e-commerce consolidation center. New energy vehicles, precision equipment, and cross-Strait parcels all flow through efficiently.
A railway line which opened on July 29 runs perpendicular to the shoreline, bringing goods from inland provinces like Jiangxi and Henan directly to the docks. The 70-meter link lets containers move from rail to ship in minutes. It is China's first dedicated sea-rail line of its kind. In just over a month, it has handled nearly 1,000 TEUs and about 1,000 vehicles.
The bustling Xiamen Port. [Photo/VCG]
To support the export of NEVs, lithium batteries and other "new three" products, Xiamen Ocean Gate Container Terminal has expanded container and roll-on/roll-off shipping. Since launching in 2016 as China's first fully automated terminal, it has been upgraded several times, adopting 5G and BeiDou positioning to enable driverless vehicles to interact with external trucks. It will soon link autonomous trucks seamlessly to rail yards.
Global Logistics (Xiamen) Co's intelligent warehouse space. [Photo provided to ftz.xm.gov.cn]
Smart technology also extends inland. Global Logistics (Xiamen) Co has grown its warehouse space from 2,000 square meters in 1999 to 40,000 today. Working with customs, it has permission to bonded and non-bonded goods to be stored together, saving nearly 2 million yuan ($298,752) a year.
The city's cross-Strait e-commerce express line, which has been running for over two years, crosses the strait in 12 to 14 hours at half the cost of air freight. A dedicated returns process now gives platforms and sellers a compliant, reliable channel for handling returns from Taiwan.