Under the guidance of “optimizing resource allocation, improving port efficiency, enhancing regional coordinated development, and promoting intelligent and green transformation”, China’s port industry has carried out a series of regional integration actions over the past few years. By concentrating advantageous resources, all localities will further concentrate the originally scattered port and terminal business sectors in the region to provincial port groups and even core listed enterprises, so as to achieve the goal of reducing “internal friction” and enhancing overall competitiveness.
Fujian, as a major province with port resources, will also follow this policy orientation to open the curtain on port business integration in the province. At the end of August, it was announced that it would be owned by Xiamen Port Authority (8.620, 0.03, 0.35%)After the acquisition of 70% of the equity of Xiamen Container Terminal Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Xiamen Container Terminal”) by Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Xiamen Port”) under the parent company has been approved by the Fujian State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission in principle, if it can be deliberated and approved at the general meeting of shareholders this month and reviewed and approved by relevant regulatory authorities, the port business in Fujian Province will also begin to enter the era of “great unification”.
High-quality asset injection
According to the “Report on Issuing Shares and Paying Cash to Purchase Assets and Raising Supporting Funds and Related Party Transactions (Draft)” (hereinafter referred to as the “Report”) released by Xiamen Port in early August, it plans to purchase 70% of the equity of Xiamen Container Terminal from its controlling shareholder, Xiamen International Port Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “International Port”), with a transaction price of about 6.178 billion yuan, and plans to issue shares to no more than 35 specific targets at the same time to raise supporting funds.
Xiamen Port is the only port listing platform under Fujian Port Group, according to the official introduction, it is mainly engaged in bulk cargo terminal loading and unloading and storage, port supporting services and comprehensive supply chain business. Xiamen Container Terminal is wholly owned by International Port Affairs, mainly engaged in container terminal loading, unloading and storage business.
Xiamen Port is an important hub of the national comprehensive transportation system, an international container trunk hub port and an important international shipping center, an important port for cross-strait exchanges and a port-type national logistics hub, and plays an important role in serving the national strategy.
According to Xiamen Port, the company has “formed a southeast coastal bulk cargo terminal group with Xiamen as the core and layout of Zhangzhou, Quanzhou and Chaozhou,” and the target company to be acquired this time is mainly engaged in container terminal loading and unloading and storage business, which has significant synergy with the existing bulk cargo terminal loading and unloading and storage of listed companies, port supporting services and comprehensive supply chain business.
”
“This restructuring is also a specific action of Fujian Port Group, the indirect controlling shareholder of Xiamen Port, to fulfill its commitment to inter-industry competition and inject high-quality assets, and is an important step to advance according to the plan after full preparation in the early stage.” The relevant person in charge of Xiamen Port said in an interview with the China Times, “On the whole, Xiamen Port chose to promote the restructuring of container terminal business at this time, which is based on strategic planning, commitment fulfillment, market opportunities and other considerations. The company believes that through this restructuring, it will accelerate the construction of a leading port logistics operation and listing platform in the country that serves the Maritime Silk Road and leads both sides of the strait, and creates greater value for shareholders. ”
Xiamen Port said that this restructuring will inject high-quality port assets under the international port into listed companies, which is conducive to further improving the main business structure of listed companies, building listed companies into comprehensive modern port logistics service providers covering container terminals, bulk cargo terminals, comprehensive supply chains and other subdivided business fields, and promoting the large-scale, intensive and coordinated development of the main business of listed companies. This restructuring is conducive to enhancing the comprehensive competitiveness of listed companies and enhancing the corporate value of listed companies.
It is worth noting that the performance and development momentum of Xiamen Container Terminal in recent years are significantly better than other business segments in the same group, and the data disclosed in the “Report” shows that in 2023, 2024 and the first quarter of this year, the company’s net profit attributable to the parent company will be 491 million yuan, 567 million yuan and 154 million yuan respectively.
“In addition to asset injection, the acquisition of Container Terminal Group is an important step for the company to achieve business upgrading and strategic integration, and the core is to acquire high-quality assets, produce a synergy effect of ‘1+1>2’, and further enhance its own ‘hematopoietic’ ability on the basis of the existing stable development of business.” The relevant person in charge of Xiamen Port told the China Times, “In the first half of this year, the company achieved revenue of 10.542 billion yuan, net profit attributable to the parent company of 141 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.44%, and net profit attributable to the parent company of 114 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 119.67%. ”
The person in charge of Xiamen Port revealed, “The company has basically realized the network layout and large-scale operation of bulk cargo terminals.” In the first half of 2025, the company achieved a cargo throughput of 20.5278 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 7.73%, ranking first in Xiamen Port.
At the same time, in terms of port supporting services, it continued to maintain its leading position in the industry of Xiamen Port, with off-port revenue of tugboat business increasing by 16.62% year-on-year, and the number of ship agents reaching 5,336 ships, a year-on-year increase of 10.61%; In the first half of 2025, the company will further expand and improve the market service capacity of Xiamen Port’s maritime channel to Taiwan, and cross-border e-commerce logistics will maintain rapid growth, with the supervision center completing a total of 17,203,500 cross-border e-commerce tickets, a significant increase of 86.43% year-on-year. ”
Fujian’s new “leader”
The “great integration” of China’s port industry, which began in the mid-2000s, is a large-scale restructuring of industry enterprises and resources under the top-level design of the transportation industry. As early as 2007, the “National Coastal Port Layout Plan” proposed to divide the national coastal ports into five major port groups: the Bohai Rim, the Yangtze River Delta, the southeast coast, the Pearl River Delta and the southwest coast, clarifying the direction of regional coordinated development. In recent years, the Ministry of Transport has further promoted port integration, promoting the integration of port resources and cross-regional coordination in the province through policy guidance and market-oriented means.
In 2019, the Ministry of Transport and other nine departments jointly issued the “Guiding Opinions on Building a World-class Port”, and our country’s port development started a historical journey from a “port power” to a “port power”. A number of provincial port groups have achieved transformation and upgrading by integrating regional resources. For example, Shandong Province integrated Qingdao Port (8.360-0.08, -0.95%, ) and Rizhao Port (3.160-0.01, -0.32%, ), Yantai Port, etc., forming a unified operation platform; Zhejiang Province takes Ningbo Zhoushan Port as the core and integrates port resources in the province. In 2024, Ningbo Zhoushan Port will have a cargo throughput of 1.76 billion tons, ranking first in the world, of which the container throughput will exceed 39 million TEUs; “Hebei Port Group” will serve by integrating Qinhuangdao Port, Tangshan Port (3.9300.02, 0.51%, ), Huanghua Port, etc. West Coal East Transport” energy transportation demand.
Fujian Province has always adhered to the concept of a game of chess in the province and promoted the rational optimization of port division of labor. In recent years, Fujian Province has continued to deepen the reform of port integration. At the end of 2024, the Fujian Provincial Department of Transport and other four departments issued the “Implementation Plan for Deepening the Integration of Port Resources in Fujian Province and Effectively Reducing Port and航运 Logistics Costs” to strengthen regional resource coordination and provide strong support for the construction of a strong maritime province and a demonstration zone for cross-strait integrated development. The relevant person in charge of Xiamen Port told the China Times, “The domestic and international ‘dual circulation’ strategy continues to advance, and the state emphasizes promoting the high-quality development of the marine economy and promoting the port industry to enter a new round of development.” As one of the core nodes of the Maritime Silk Road, Xiamen Port has ushered in multiple opportunities such as the ‘Belt and Road’ and the deepening implementation of RCEP.
Through this restructuring, the company can quickly optimize its business structure, improve its business capabilities, and better serve the national strategy. ”
In fact, with the gradual completion of the regional restructuring of major domestic port enterprises, the key direction of the industry in the next step has also begun to include intelligent transformation, green development, functional optimization and specialization.
The relevant person in charge of Xiamen Port told this reporter, “In recent years, the company has begun to accelerate the construction of smart green ports and accelerate the formation of new port quality productivity.” The container terminal group is also continuing to promote the construction of green and smart ports, fully implement the ‘carbon peak and carbon neutrality’, improve the intelligent level of terminal production and operation, accelerate the cultivation of new quality productivity, focus on building an intelligent terminal operating system and application software service matrix with independent intellectual property rights, and accelerate the intelligent transformation and updating of the main loading, unloading and storage equipment of the port. By providing a complete set of smart solutions to achieve full-process business collaboration and information sharing, Container Terminal Group can improve the operational efficiency of all aspects of social logistics, reduce logistics costs, and accelerate the intelligent transformation process of terminals. If the successful acquisition of Container Terminal Group is successful, it will promote the company’s intelligent, green and modern transformation. ”
According to the “report”, Xiamen Port plans to issue shares to raise supporting funds of no more than 3.5 billion yuan in the acquisition process, and in addition to paying the cash consideration for this transaction, the raised funds will also be used for the Xiamen Port Multimodal Transport Smart Logistics Center project, terminal equipment renovation project, Xiang’an Port Area 1#-5# container berth project and supplementary working capital.
The construction of this fundraising project is to thoroughly implement the requirements of world-class port construction, and strive to build a safe, convenient, smart and green, cost-effective, strongly supported, and world-advanced port. This fundraising project realizes the rapid loading and unloading and circulation of goods by introducing automated loading and unloading equipment, intelligent scheduling systems, etc., and improves the port operation capacity and intelligence level by using advanced logistics technology and efficient operation mode. At the same time, the construction of high-standard warehouse clusters will attract all kinds of port logistics enterprises to settle in, form an industrial agglomeration effect, fully release the LCL business capacity of Xiamen Port, help Xiamen Port occupy a more important position in the global shipping network, promote the construction of Xiamen Southeast Shipping Center, and make it an important logistics hub connecting domestic and foreign markets.
In the context of global trade integration and the continuous upgrading of the shipping industry, the construction of international container hub ports has become the key to enhancing the competitiveness of regional shipping.
The construction of this fundraising project is in line with the growth of container throughput and the trend of large-scale container ships in Xiamen Port, meet the growth demand of foreign trade in the hinterland of Xiamen Port, further strengthen the handling capacity of super-large container ships in Xiamen Port, and promote the integrated development of port and city.
