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Inland Waterway Transport in China: Situation and Problems

Shulin DUAN1, Gongzhi YU1, Hui XING1, Zhanhua WU1

1
Marine Engineering College, Dalian Maritime University, 116026, Dalian, China,
PH (086) 0411- 84726059; FAX (086) 0411-84729382;
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email: duanshulin099@yahoo.com.cn

ABSTRACT

Inland waterway transportation plays an important role in China's economic

development. In recent years, state and local governments increased their investment
in inland water transportation and inland shipping capacity grows continuously.
Although inland water transportation developed steadily, it is still uncoordinated with
the development of market economy in some respects. In comparison to the
developed countries, China's inland water transportation resources and its advantages
have not yet been fully developed and exploited. In this paper, the development status
of China's inland water transportation, the present problems in shipping capacity, ship
type, competition, management, technical equipment and security system were
analyzed comprehensively and the methods to solve these problems were proposed.
The results are instructive for the sustainable development of inland water
transportation in China.

1. INTRUDUCTION

China has a vast territory, numerous rivers and rich waterway resources. There is
a special advantage of inland waterway transport in China's integrated transport
system. In 2008, 122.8 thousand km of navigable inland waterway was available for
cargo or passengers transportation, of which grade 3 (and above) inland waterway
amounted 8.8 thousand km. Inland vessels totaled 172 thousand and deadweight was
55 million tones. About 26 thousand productive berths were along the inland
waterway ports. The total freight was 1350 million tones. Cargo and container
handling capacity in inland waterway were 2.53 billion tones and 11.58 million TEU
(National Bureau of Statistics 2008).
Although great achievement has been made in inland waterway transportation in
China, compared with railway, highway and airline, the inland waterway
transportation is not developed enough and has become a weak link of transportation
system in China (Mao et al. 2009).

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2. THE SITUATION OF INLAND WATERWAY TRANSPOTATION

The inland waterways in China are mainly Yangtze River, Pearl River, Great
Canal and Heilongjiang River. In recent years, with the sustained growth of national
economic, Chinese government has been embarking on the development of the
integrated transportation system; the inland waterway transport is stably developed.
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2.1 The Situation of Inland Waterway

In recent years, state and local governments increased their investment in inland
waterway construction. Some waterway has been upgraded, which promote inland
waterway transportation.
Table 1 shows development of inland waterway from 2001 to 2008.

Table 1. Development of inland waterway (2001-2008)

Years 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
4
Length of inland waterway (10 km)
Navigable 12.20 12.16 12.40 12.33 12.33 12.34 12.35 12.28
Graded 6.40 6.36 6.09 6.08 6.10 6.10 6.12 6.11
Grade 1 0.2946 0.2946 0.1346 0.1404 0.1404 0.1407 0.1407 0.1385
Grade 2 0.1917 0.1917 0.2512 0.2513 0.2513 0.2538 0.2538 0.2634
Grade 3 0.3359 0.3359 0.4195 0.4389 0.4714 0.4742 0.4877 0.4802
Grade 4 0.5842 0.6257 0.7003 0.6948 0.6697 0.6768 0.6943 0.7213
Grade 5 0.9165 0.9031 0.7784 0.8093 0.8331 0.8584 0.8586 0.8526
Grade 6 2.1630 2.1076 1.9228 1.8904 1.8771 1.8407 1.8401 1.8160
Grade 7 1.8833 1.9011 1.9797 1.8592 1.8584 1.8589 1.8445 1.8374

The characteristic of inland waterway transportation in China is large in scale,

backward in infrastructural facilities. Among the total navigable waterway, the graded
channel is only 50%, the competitive channel (above grade 4) is only 13%.
By the end of 2008, about 1300 ports and 25931 berths were along the inland
waterway, including 259 for 10 thousand tones berths. The 10 thousand tones berths
mainly distribute in Yangtze River, Pearl River, and Great Canal.Table 2 shows
development of berths along Inland waterway from 2001 to 2008.

Table 2. Development of berths along inland waterway (2001-2008)

Year 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Number of berths
Productive berths 29723 29778 30015 30911 30944 30942 31246 25931
4
Berths over 10 tones 133 135 151 154 187 225 259 259

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2.2 The Current Situation of Freight Vessels

In recent years, great attention has been paid to the construction of transport
infrastructure, so the navigation condition is improved. The average tonnage of
transport vessels increased annually and the quality of transport vessels improved
continuously. By the end of 2008, inland waterway transport vessels totaled 172
thousand with 55 million total deadweight tones, in which total passenger places were
862 thousand, Container spaces were 68.7 thousand TEU.
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Figure 1 shows the development of the number of inland waterway transport

vessels and total deadweight. Although from 2001 to2007 the number of transport
vessels decreased 19.9 thousand，the deadweight of vessels increased 31.2 million
tones, which is the average deadweight of vessels increased from 107.23 tones in
2001 to 292.24 tones in 2007.

25 6000 120 8
Number of Inland Transport Vessels, 10 unit

Inland Transport Vessels Seat of Passanger Ship

5500
Total Deadweight of Vessels 7
4

Total Deadweight of Vessels, 10 ton

Container Spaces
5000 100
20
4

Container spaces, 10 TEU

4500 4
6
Passanger Spaces, unit 10
4000 80

4
5
15 3500
3000 60 4

10 2500
3
2000 40
1500 2
5
1000 20
1
500
0 0 0 0
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Years Years

Figure 1. Number and total deadweight Figure 2. Passenger and container

spaces of inland transport vessels

Figure 2 shows the development of the total passenger places and container
spaces of inland waterway transport vessels from 2001 to2007. Compared with 2001,
the total passenger places decreased in general, because with development of highway,
railway and airline, more and more people would like to choose faster traveling style.
At the same time, the container transport increased greatly, compared with 2001, the
container spaces increased 7.63 times.

2.3 The Current Situation of Freight Capacity

In 2007, the total freight and total freight ton-kilometers in waterway were 2812
million tones and 6428.485 billion ton-km respectively, of which there were 1299
million tones and 355.312 billion ton-km respectively in inland waterway.
Figure 3 presents the total freight traffic and total freight ton-kilometers in inland
waterway from 2001 to 2007. The total freight traffic and total freight ton-kilometers
increased by 13.8% per year and 21.8% per year in average.
Goods transported in inland waterway are mainly bulk cargo (see Figure 4). Near
80% of total freight traffic is coal, metal ores, construction materials, oil and products,
container and ro-ro vehicles are 17.1% and 3.7%.

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With the development of regional economy along rivers, the transportation of

liquid chemicals, container and ro-ro vehicles will be increased greatly in future.

20 4000 100
Total Freighe Ton-kilometers
18 90 general cargo
3500

Total Freight Ton-kilometers, 10 ton-km

Total Freight Traffic
Liquid Cargo
16 80
Bulk Cargo
3000
Total Freight Traffic, 10 ton

Percentage of Transport, %
14 70 Container

8
8

RO-ro Vechcel
12 2500 60

10 2000 50
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8 40
1500
6 30
1000
4 20
2 500 10
0 0 0
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Types of Cargo (2007)
Years

Figure 3. Total freight traffic and total Figure 4. Types of cargo

freight ton-kilometers (2001- 2007)

2400
6 Yangtze River 2200 Yangtze River
Grand Canal Grand Canal
2000 Pearl River
Total Freight Ton-kilometers, 10 ton-km
Pear Riverl River
5 Heilongjiang River 1800 Heilongjiang River
Total Freight Traffic, 10 ton

Others Others
8

1600
8

4 1400
1200
3
1000
800
2
600
1 400
200
0 0
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Years Years

Figure 5. Total freight traffic Figure 6. Total freight ton-km distribution

distribution

Figure 5 and Figure 6 present the distribution of total freight traffic and total
freight ton-kilometers in inland waterway from 2001 to 2007. It can be found that
Yangtze River is the main canal for inland waterway transportation. The total freight
traffic in Yangtze River, Pearl River, Heilongjiang River and Great Canal is 41.1%,
21.8%, 16.1% and 1.0% respectively.

3. THE PROBLEMS IN INLAND WATERWAY TRANSPOTATION

During the development of national economic，the growth of inland waterway

transportation is slower compared with other transportation styles, and shows a sign
of decrease in the integrated transport system (Liu 2006). The problems in inland
waterway transportation are as follows.

3.1 Low Grade Inland Waterway

For a long time, the development speed of inland waterway transportation is slow.
Among the length of total navigable waterway, graded channel is only about 50%,

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channel graded 3 (and above) is only about 7.2% and majority of channel is still at the
state of nature. Although in recent 5 years, the investment in inland waterway
construction is increased, the investment is only 2.37% of highway and 8.68% of
railway. The reason of low grade inland waterway is short of investment in inland
waterway infrastructure construction.

3.2 Low Average Tonnage and No-specialization in Berths

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Low average tonnage of berths in inland waterway is very common. Among 26

thousand productive berths, there are only 15% of 500 tonnages and lack of large and
specialized berths. The most of facilities in berths are obsolete.

3.3 Miscellaneous in Vessel Type and Out-of Date in Technology

Since 2006, the total deadweight of inland waterway transport vessels is
maintained about 50 million tones, but in general, the tonnage of vessels is small, the
vessel type is miscellaneous and the technology is out-of date. In 2007, the average
deadweight of inland waterway transport vessels was 292.24 tones, 35% that of
Europe and 17% that of America (Mao 2005). At present, there are near 3000 types of
vessels in inland waterway, 300 types of vessels with 140 types of engines in Yangtze
River. Simply-built vessels (built with cement or wood) navigated in inland waterway
is about 20% of total transport vessels.
Small tonnage vessel and miscellaneous vessel type result in high cost of
transportation, which constraints the development of inland waterway transportation.
Waterway packed with small boats results in accidents. The transport capacity of
large fleet can not be fully developed even though the infrastructure construction has
been improved.

3.4 Overcapacity and Vicious Competition

Overcapacity in inland waterway transportation is very serious at present, and the
capacity structure is unreasonable. Many vessels are simply built which leads poor
safety and poor efficiency in transportation. The proportion of general bulk cargo
vessels is excessive and overcapacity, but oil tank, container ship and some special
purpose ships are relatively insufficient.
Because a unified and regular transport market has not been established, the
disordered transport market is not administered effectively. Vicious competition
results in most of the enterprises are under deficit.

4. MEASURES TO IMPROVE INLAND WATERWAY TRANSPORTATION

The inland waterway is important strategic resources for sustainable development

in national economic. It is important to fully exploit it for connection of the east,
middle and west of China, for reinforcement of economic communication and

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materials exchange among different areas. In order to fully exploit the function of
inland waterway transportation, the measures should be followed.

4.1 Construction of High Grade Waterway

It is important to improve the navigation conditions of main waterway for the
development of inland waterway transportation as a whole. The construction of high
grade waterway network should be emphasis. In the future, the priority of
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construction of waterway should be available for 500 tons and 1000 tons vessels.

4.2 Adjustment and Construction of Inland Ports

The structure and function of inland ports should be adjusted and expanded.
Large container ports, ore ports, oil ports, LNG/LPG ports and ro-ro ports should be
positively developed, passenger ports should be moderately developed, small bulk
cargo ports should be restrictedly developed. The supporting facilities construction of
ports should be accelerated in order to promote the ports to be multifunction and
specialization (Chen, et al. 2006).

4.3 Transportation Vessel Type Standardization

The structure and capacity of inland waterway transportation should be adjusted
and optimized in order to adapt to new situation. The traditional bulk cargo
transportation such as coals, ores and construction materials should be strengthen, the
container transportation, oil and chemical products transportation as well as ro-ro
vehicles transportation should be strongly developed. The river-sea direct
transportation should be developed in order to reduce transit shipment on route and
improve transport efficiency.
The elimination of small tonnage vessels, simplified vessels and old age vessels
should be accelerated. The Access-Exit system of inland waterway transportation
should be established as early as possible. The vessel type standardization should be
implemented which will reduce the transport cost and increase the navigation
capacity and efficiency (Gao, et al. 2006).

4.4 Creation of Environment Beneficial to Transportation

It is important to establish a completely law system to provide a legal
environment for inland waterway transportation, which is beneficial to formation of a
unified transportation market. A perfect security supervision and administration
system should be established to standardize transportation order and construct a
unified, open, competitive and ordered transportation market.

5. CONCLUSION

Inland waterway transportation plays an important role in China's economic

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development. In addition, there is a special advantage of inland waterway transport in

China's integrated transport system. In the future, the high grade waterway, vessel
type standardization, berth specialization and other improvement should be realized
to adapt to the need of sustainable national economic development.

REFERENCES
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Chen, F. E, Zhang, R. Y. (2006). “Optimization of shanghai port container

inland-river transportation network.” Journal of Shanghai Jiaotong University,
40(6), 1019-1023
Gao, H. J, Xiao, K. P, Deng, X. J, et al. (2006). “Study on promoting domestic inland
river ship standardization.” Research on Waterborne Transportation, 2006(2), 3-9
Liu, Q. Z. (2006). “The inland river shipping development question reconsiders.”
China Water Transport, 4(8), 35-37
Mao, J. (2005). “Comparative study of inland waterway transportation development
between China and USA.” Journal of Wuhan University of Technology, 18(5),
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Mao, B. H, Sun, Q. X, Chen S. K. (2009). “Structural analysis on 2008 intercity
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National Bureau of Statistics (2001-2008). China statistical yearbook, China Statistics
Press, Beijing

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