The Yangtze River -- China's "Golden Waterway" and longest river -- is facing declining shipping capacity, prompting experts to call for unified standards in shipbuilding.

Wu Xiuyi, deputy director of the Development and Research Center of the Shanghai municipal government, said in his latest report that lack of consistency in the shapes of ships and shortage of new-type ships on the Yangtze negatively affected the river's shipping efficiency and capacity, harming economic development along the river.

Though the amount of water in the Yangtze River is six times that of the Rhine, its transportation capacity is only one-sixth that of the European river.

Experiences from developed nations show that unifying ship's hulls has been an important way to raise shipping capacity of inland rivers, especially of the container vessels, Wu noted.

According to Wu, container vessels will be the major vessels on the Yangtze in the future, with the river's container volume to hit 4.5 million by 2010, a year-on-year growth of 22 percent.

Currently, container vessels only take up around three percent of the river total transportation capacity.

Experts acknowledged that the shipping service system of the river also has to be unified, including the customs service level, port administration and tax service, so as to improve customs efficiency on the river.

As one of the largest rivers worldwide, the Yangtze, has great advantages in shipping because of its low cost as compared to rail and highway and because of its full capacity of cargo transportation.

Wu went on to say that China is facing a tight supply of petroleum, increasing the importance of water transportation as a means of saving energy, bringing new opportunities to the Yangtze.

Wang Yiming, an expert from the State Development and Reform Commission (SDRC), said that though China took great pains to develop highways and railways in recent years, it has still failed to ease the tense transportation nationwide. If the capacity of the Yangtze is tapped to the full, the river will play a vital role in improving the country's transportation capacity.

The total transportation capacity of the 6,300-km-long Yangtze River equals to that of four to six rail routes of the same length, while shipping costs are only one-sixth that of the railways, one-28th that of highways and one-78th that of airplanes.

The Yangtze River accounts for approximately half of China's total river shipping volume, with more than 2,000-km-long deep-water line and some 220 ports along the river.

In 2003, major ports along the Yangtze handled more than 300 million tons of goods and materials, posing a year-on-year surge of 17.2 percent. The foreign trade reached 70 million tons and the container volume hit 1.4 million TEU.

Experts predict that amid the rapid growth of shipping on the river, the total cargo handled on the river this year may surge about 20 percent over 2003. And the river's shipping volume may amount to 800 million tons by 2010.

Since China's accession to the World Trade Organization, the construction of the Shanghai International Shipping Center and the deep-water sea-route at the mouth of the Yangtze have made it much easier for overseas vessels to enter the "Golden Waterway."

All major cities along the Yangtze have fully come to realize the importance of the river and are joining hands to explore a new cooperation model to boost the "Golden Waterway".

(Xinhua News Agency November 13, 2004)