At the 2023 Qingdao Yellow River Basin Land-Sea Linkage High-Quality 
Development Seminar held on August 26, 2023, the International Shipping Hubs 
Development Index Report (2023), the Xinhua - SPG Port Bulk Commodity Index 
Annual Operation Report (2023) and the RCEP Seaborne Trade Index Report (2023) 
were released.

According to the participants, the port bulk commodity trade in the form of 
indices can be digitally presented to realize the efficient linkage between 
port shipping and bulk commodity trade and offer reliable guidance for the 
smooth operation of the global industrial chain and supply chain.

Following the "Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Center Development Index", 
the China Economic Information Service (CEIS) has introduced another global 
port and shipping assessment index -- the International Shipping Hubs 
Development Index Report (2023). This report evaluates the overall development 
of the world's main shipping hubs and port clusters based on various categories 
and characteristics.

The findings suggest that international trunk hubs, including Singapore Port, 
Shanghai Port, Ningbo Zhoushan Port, Rotterdam Port, and Qingdao Port, have 
attained a high level of development; Guangzhou Port, the Port of 
Antwerp-Bruges and Tianjin Port are examples of regional integrated hubs, which 
have distinctive features and rank top among the RCEP members. The 
comprehensive evaluation results of port clusters show that the Yangtze River 
Delta port cluster and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area port 
cluster have secured leading positions. Similarly, the Shandong port cluster 
situated around Bohai Bay and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei port cluster 
demonstrate robust international competitiveness.

CEIS and Shandong Port Group jointly released the Xinhua-SPG Port Bulk 
Commodity Index, which has been constantly upgraded and improved since its 
debut in 2021. The index has formed a comprehensive system of price index, 
inventory index, and entry & exit index. This year, the index system expanded 
the spot trading price index of sulfur and petroleum coke upon expansion.

After expansion, the index system includes seven price indices for crude oil, 
iron ore, coke, steel billet, hot rolled C material, sulfur, and petroleum 
coke, as well as six volume indices for iron ore inventory, coke inventory, 
inbound iron ore, outbound iron ore, inbound coke, and outbound coke.

According to the plan, the petroleum coke inventory index will continue to be 
released in future. The purpose is to accurately reflect the trend of commodity 
market fluctuations in ports, provide a value benchmark and effective reference 
for port trade activities, and comprehensively enhance the ability to monitor, 
analyze, and early warning capabilities of domestic and foreign commodity 
prices.

The RCEP Seaborne Trade Index Report (2023) took the 14 member countries 
(except for Laos) of RCEP as the research objects and selected six major 
categories of cargo, including container cargo, iron ore, coal, oil products, 
LNG, and car, as the analysis objects to reflect the annual development trend 
of RCEP seaborne trade from two dimensions, including overall trade volume and 
seaborne trade volume. According to the index report, the RCEP Seaborne Trade 
Index reached 101.4 in 2022, surpassing the 2019 baseline for two consecutive 
years. The RCEP seaborne trade volume has gained an increasingly larger global 
market share, especially in the container segment. The report reveals that the 
RCEP Seaborne Trade Index had a decline of 0.2 points year-on-year in 2022, in 
line with the prevailing downward trajectory observed in the worldwide volume 
of seaborne commerce. According to the report, the RCEP agreement, which will 
take full effect for the 15 signatories in the first half of 2023, would result 
in a more favorable seaborne trade prospect among RCEP members than the global 
trade outlook in 2023.

Source: China Economic Information Service