Navigation to open in September, canal designed for 5,000-ton vessels, a 560-kilometre route reduction and annual throughput of up to 180 million tons

As reported by CCTV+, on Thursday, excavation work on the main channel of the Pinglu Canal — the first canal built since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 to connect a river to the sea — was fully completed. This has laid a solid foundation for opening the canal to navigation in September.

The 134.2-kilometre-long canal stretches from the Xijin Reservoir in Hengzhou City to the Qinzhou Port in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, southern China. Excavating the 125.5-kilometre main channel required moving about 214 million cubic metres of earth and rock.

Built to Class I inland waterway standards, the canal will be able to accommodate vessels of up to 5,000 tons displacement. Once operational, the canal will allow goods from Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou to be shipped directly via the Xijiang river system to ports in the Beibu Gulf in Guangxi, bypassing the neighbouring province of Guangdong. This strategic shift is expected to significantly reduce the shipping distance by about 560 kilometres.

Two waterway service stations will be built for refuelling, supply and administrative services for passing vessels. The canal’s annual cargo throughput is estimated to reach 95.5 million tons by 2035, with a long-term target of 120 to 180 million tons per year.

Wang Xianzhang, Deputy General Manager of Guangxi Pinglu Canal Construction Co., Ltd., said: “In the long term, our annual cargo throughput could reach 120 to 180 million tons per year.”

134 kilometres of new waterway. 214 million cubic metres of excavated earth. 5,000-ton vessels. This is not just a canal. It is a new artery of Chinese logistics. Pinglu connects rivers to the sea, cutting the route by 560 kilometres. Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou gain a direct outlet to the Beibu Gulf. Throughput of up to 180 million tons per year. The numbers are impressive, but something else is more important: China continues to redraw the map of inland navigation. Not in theory, but on the ground. Not on paper, but in concrete and steel. The question is not when the canal will open. The question is how quickly competitors can offer anything similar. While they are thinking, China is already digging. And connecting rivers to the sea.