Shipping, port, cargo owner, and freight forwarding representatives from both inside and outside Jiangsu Province recently gathered in Nanjing for the Jiangsu Province International Maritime Supply-Demand Matching Conference, aiming to jointly strengthen logistics corridors and deliver high-quality services for the province's manufacturing exports. During the event, 14 projects were signed on-site, creating a face-to-face platform for shipowners seeking cargo and cargo owners seeking vessels.

The Manufacturing Need: Stable Support for Export Corridors

As a major manufacturing and open-economy province, Jiangsu is home to a growing number of export-oriented enterprises, with capacity expansion overseas accelerating rapidly and reliance on international shipping channels continuing to intensify. In 2025, Jiangsu's economic output reached 14.24 trillion yuan, growing 5.3%, with manufacturing value-add accounting for 33.5% of GDP, ranking first nationwide. The province's total foreign trade import and export volume hit 5.95 trillion yuan, maintaining second place nationally, while actual foreign investment usage has ranked first for eight consecutive years. New energy, construction machinery, and automotive equipment manufactured in Jiangsu are selling strongly across global markets.

The stronger manufacturing becomes, the greater its need for stable maritime corridor support. Currently, the efficiency and reliability of international shipping routes directly impact manufacturers' global competitiveness and the security of industrial and supply chains. The development practices of XCMG Group reflect the common strategic considerations facing Jiangsu manufacturers going global. "XCMG products are sold in more than 190 countries and regions worldwide," the company's representative noted, explaining that XCMG has established a "four-in-one" international development model encompassing export trade, overseas greenfield plant construction, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, and global R&D. Stable and dependable international shipping support has become a crucial foundation for its overseas market expansion.

As a benchmark enterprise for Jiangsu's high-end equipment manufacturing exports, XCMG's international layout and global market expansion demonstrate that efficient, stable, and green international shipping corridors are essential to enhancing manufacturers' global competitiveness. This represents a core common requirement faced across Jiangsu's entire manufacturing export journey.

The Port & Shipping Strength: A Solid Foundation Linking Rivers to the Sea

Jiangsu's ports adopt differentiated positioning and complementary advantages, forming a pattern where coastal ports radiate outward, river ports transship between river and sea, and inland waterway ports serve hinterland collection and distribution. The province currently operates 606 berths of 10,000-ton class or above, with comprehensive port handling capacity of 3.06 billion tons and 10 ports exceeding 100 million tons annually. In 2025, port cargo throughput reached 3.71 billion tons—all these metrics rank first nationally. Among the country's top 20 ports by throughput, six are located in Jiangsu. The 12.5-meter deep-water channel below Nanjing on the Yangtze River is fully open, allowing 50,000-ton seagoing vessels to reach Nanjing directly. With 24,000 kilometers of inland waterways and 2,761 kilometers of third-class or above channels, Jiangsu leads the nation in scale, covering the vast majority of its industrial parks and county economies.

Thanks to these abundant water transport resources, the province's total social logistics costs have dropped to 12.6% of GDP—1.3 percentage points below the national average. On a 14.24 trillion yuan economic base, this translates into substantial logistics cost savings for the real economy. As the integrated platform responsible for port investment, construction, management, and operation in Jiangsu Province, Jiangsu Provincial Port Group has long treated enhancing maritime shipping supply capacity and serving the province's open economy as its core mission. The group continuously optimizes route networks, upgrades port service levels, reduces comprehensive logistics costs, and supports high-quality industrial development across all dimensions. Currently, the group operates 239 berths, including 132 deep-water berths of 10,000-ton class or above, all located along the Yangtze River. It operates 223 shipping routes with over 3,000 monthly sailings, covering more than 100 countries and regions, and has established four major export corridors targeting ocean routes, Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. In 2024, the group's container throughput exceeded 10 million TEUs, and in 2025 cargo throughput surpassed 600 million tons, making it the first inland river port enterprise nationally to exceed 600 million tons and 10 million TEUs—providing solid, tangible support for Jiangsu manufacturing's global expansion.

The Synergy Effect: An Integrated Port-Shipping Ecosystem

To precisely match industrial export demand, port and shipping enterprises are actively leveraging their respective strengths and deepening collaborative linkages to build a new port-shipping synergy ecosystem. Through diversified, customized, and high-quality logistics solutions, they help Jiangsu manufacturing reach global markets efficiently while providing robust maritime logistics support for industrial and supply chain security and stability. Jiangsu Provincial Port Group actively responds to export enterprises' demands for stable, efficient, and cost-effective international maritime logistics services, continuously amplifying its three core advantages in river-sea transshipment, port opening, and port cluster development. It keeps the three backbone corridors of river-sea intermodal, river-river intermodal, and rail-water intermodal flowing smoothly, extending port functions directly to hinterland industry frontlines so logistics services reach the "doorstep of the enterprise."

Focusing on the diversified and customized needs of manufacturing exports, Jiangsu Provincial Port Group continues to expand full-chain logistics service capabilities, improving distinctive service systems including "door-to-door" one-stop end-to-end logistics, fully customized supply chain value-added services, and collaborative innovation across diverse cargo types. These services precisely match shipping requirements for different product categories, continuously converting port and shipping logistics resource advantages into international competitive advantages for Jiangsu manufacturing. COSCO Shipping Lines continues to deepen strategic cooperation with Jiangsu Provincial Port Group, leveraging its formidable fleet of 604 self-operated container vessels and 420 operational routes covering global networks, while strengthening scaled and globalized coordinated development. China Merchants Shipping places high importance on cultivating the Jiangsu market. In the breakbulk transport segment, it leverages global network advantages and specialized fleet capacity to provide "one enterprise, one policy" precision logistics solutions for major equipment exports from Jiangsu.

ZTE Corporation provides technical support for port intelligent transformation on one hand, helping port and shipping enterprises upgrade service capabilities and export security; on the other, it actively promotes "Jiangsu goods shipped via Jiangsu routes" through port and shipping enterprises' global logistics networks, continuously optimizing transport modes to further reduce logistics costs. Sinotrans possesses robust logistics networks and global supply chain organization capabilities, delivering end-to-end supply chain solutions for clients across home appliances, automobiles, electronics, and energy chemicals. It continues accelerating its transformation into a comprehensive logistics service provider and evolving toward a smart logistics platform enterprise. Sinotrans Smart Storage is dedicated to building a new smart multimodal transport service ecosystem, innovatively establishing a multimodal platform supporting road, rail, and water scenarios both domestically and internationally, offering customers one-click ordering, real-time cargo tracking, and online invoicing across a full-chain, one-stop digital service.

The Future Commitment: Embarking on Deep-Sea Journeys Together

All parties are using this conference as an opportunity to jointly accelerate the construction of a two-way open hub with global appeal, build smooth and efficient international maritime corridors, establish maritime supply-demand matching platforms, and further optimize and enhance the resilience and security of the province's international shipping supply chains. A senior executive from Jiangsu Provincial Port Group stated: "Facing the complex and rapidly evolving global trade landscape, the group will accelerate overseas expansion, extending service reach to overseas end-users, enhancing terminal service capabilities for international shipping. We will deepen cooperation with port and shipping industry partners and clients, build resilient, secure, efficient, and unobstructed international maritime corridors, comprehensively upgrade maritime supply-demand matching and service levels, and create an open, integrated, and mutually beneficial port-shipping industry ecosystem serving the province's overall high-quality industrial development."

As of the first half of 2026, Jiangsu operates 102 international container routes (nine added this year), including 28 ocean routes directly connecting to 38 countries and regions worldwide. Going forward, Jiangsu will accelerate coordinated port development across the province, continuously upgrade port capacities, further implement and refine supply-demand matching mechanisms, institutionalize port-shipping-trade matching platforms, persistently optimize international shipping support policies and service levels, and create a better business environment. These efforts aim to fully safeguard the resilience of foreign trade industrial and supply chains and contribute greater transportation strength to building a two-way open hub with global appeal.