Zixing Paper Product Co can now load products at the recently established dry port of Suzhou high-tech zone and ship them to Taicang Port, which will not only save time but also cut costs.

A dry port is a logistics center built inland to provide services of declaration, inspection and bill-of-lading issuing. The dry port of the Suzhou high-tech zone covers 20,000 square meters, along with its warehouse area of 35,000 square meters. Roughly 300 meters in range of the dry port are special warehouses for containers with an area of over 100,000 square meters. There are more than 120 import and export enterprises within 10 kilometers of the dry port, which manufactures 1 million standard cases of products annually.

At present, the trial operation of the dry port in Suzhou high-tech zone is progressing smoothly. According to the person in charge of the service center of the high-tech zone of the management committee of Taicang Port, after the completion of the dry port in Suzhou high-tech zone, it will provide services such as warehousing, booking, transit of goods, customs clearance, inspection and insurance. The services will match those offered by Taicang Port. Dry ports offer a logistics model for enterprises with more convenience, low costs and low risks.

In recent years, Taicang Port has been cooperating with the local government, customs and CIQ Bureau (China Inspection and Quarantine Bureau) to establish service centers in the high-tech zone, industrial park and Kunshan. The dry ports are built in southern Jiangsu to extend the service functions of Taicang Port. So far, the construction of the dry port in Suzhou Industrial Park has been completed, and the dry port of the Suzhou high-tech zone is in trial operation. What’s more, construction is being prepared for dry ports in Kunshan and Wuxi.

The dry port in Suzhou Industrial Park was put into operation last July. The enterprises around the park directly deliver and pick up goods at the dry port, which greatly increases efficiency and cuts costs for the enterprises. It is estimated that in this way each standard case can save 150 yuan ($24.44) in import costs and 100 yuan in export costs in addition to two and a half hours.