■Photography by Gong Junqi
■Luo Jing, chief reporter of the Labor Daily
After years of intensive development, the North Bund has experienced a rapid transition from an "old wharf" to a "shipping street" to a "shipping headquarters base". Recently, the reporter learned from Hongkou District that the total regional economic contribution of the shipping industry has increased by 8 times in the past ten years, and the total proportion has increased from 12.3% in 2012 to 19.5% in 2021. Today, the North Bund has become the central node along the Huangpu River. Together with The Bund and Lujiazui , it has formed the "Golden Triangle" of Shanghai's development, and is destined to become the most influential area in Shanghai in the future. There are more than 4,000 shipping companies. More than 170 years ago, the North Bund opened with Shanghai and became a distribution center for imported and exported goods at that time, and it also became one of the birthplaces of Shanghai's modern shipping industry. The shipping history is deeply imprinted on the land of the North Bund. Until the 1990s, the riverside area of the North Bund still retained the wharf function of Shanghai Port.
is the symbol of the brand of Shanghai International Shipping Center. Over the years, the North Bund has been deeply involved in the development of the shipping service industry, realizing the transition from an "old wharf" to a "shipping service headquarters base". In the first half of this year, benefiting from the overall improvement of the shipping industry, the shipping industry in Hongkou and Hongkou remained at a high level. At present, there are more than 4,000 shipping companies in Hongkou District, and more than 100 shipping companies are established here every year. In recent years, shipping headquarters-based companies have further gathered. Among the top 50 liner shipping companies in the world, 39 have established multinational regional headquarters, branches or representative offices in the mainland, of which 12 are in Hongkou. In addition, port service companies represented by Shanghai Port Group , and domestic trade water transportation companies represented by Pan Asia Shipping have also settled and developed in the North Bund.
Deyuan Xianzhi, chairman of MOL (China) Co., Ltd., said that the strong atmosphere of the shipping industry in the North Bund attracted him to set up his company here.
Realize multiple "firsts" in shipping
In promoting the development of the shipping service industry, Hongkou District not only pays attention to the gathering of shipping enterprises, but also pays attention to the improvement of shipping service functions. At present, there are nearly 40 shipping functional organizations, especially the nearly 10. Over the years, it has undertaken a number of functional organizations represented by "Chinese prefix" associations such as China Shipowners Association , China Shipowners Mutual Insurance Association , China Ship Oil Pollution Claims Center and other "Chinese prefix" associations.
Not only that, Hongkou District has launched the Shanghai North Bund Shipping Service Center, which brings together shipping agencies, industry experts and shipping information to become the "think tank" of Shanghai International Shipping Center. It can be said that the North Bund has become the region with the most agglomeration of shipping service companies, the most obvious features of shipping headquarters, the most complete shipping elements, and the most complete shipping industry chain in mainland China. The shipping industry’s status as a pillar industry has become increasingly solid.
The North Bund has always been a pioneer in the development of high-end shipping services. Hongkou District has carried out benchmarking research very early, clarified the positioning and key breakthrough directions, focused on high-end, first-hand trials, and achieved multiple "firsts" of China Shipping , including the first batch of shipping broker pilots in China, the first in China. A wholly foreign-owned cruise shipping company, etc.
The North Bund is known as a test field for the innovation and development of modern shipping services in China, and has made important contributions to the improvement of the soft power of Shanghai International Shipping Center. In 2016, China's first international P&I management company settled in the North Bund. Benchmarking well-known international shipping centers such as London, , Singapore, , the North Bund has successfully attracted a number of high-end shipping service companies with international influence in recent years, such as Vessels Value, the world's first shipping big data company that provides online ship valuation, Internationally renowned shipping P&I association, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Beiying P&I Association, Xia Liwen, Yingshi and other maritime law firms with a history of 100 years, etc.
Increase Influence and Discourse Power
In July this year, the "2022 Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Center Development Index" was released on the North Bund. It has been seven years since the index was first released in 2014, witnessing and recording every breakthrough in the construction of Shanghai's international shipping center. The
report shows that Shanghai is 82.79's overall score continues to rank third, with the gaps with Singapore and London of 12.09 and 0.25 respectively, which continue to narrow from 15.02 and 0.38 in 2021.
"The Fourteenth Five-Year Plan for the Construction of Shanghai International Shipping Center" pointed out that by 2025, Shanghai will basically be built into a world-class international shipping center that is convenient, efficient, fully functional, open and integrated, green, intelligent, and powerfully guaranteed, with an annual container throughput. Reach more than 47 million TEUs. Among the seven tasks proposed by the
plan, one of the key points is to optimize the spatial layout and give full play to the agglomeration and radiation effect of the shipping industry. Among them, the future goal of the North Bund area is to "attract shipping companies, international organizations and functional institutions with international influence, and form a core bearing area for high-end shipping service functions". At present, the new round of development and construction of the North Bund has been fully accelerated. In the future, a new landmark of Puxi of 480 meters will be erected on the 4 square kilometers of land on the North Bund, with a building volume of 4.8 million square meters. The core area of 0.8 square kilometers will form a business volume of 3.5 million square meters and gather hundreds of high-level corporate headquarters.
