Yongjiang Customs’ Answer Sheet to "14th Five-Year Plan" - Ningbo Customs Innovates Supervision and Deepens Port-Area Integration to Build a New Highland for Opening-Up

In recent years, with the container throughput of Meishan Port breaking through the 10 million TEUs, the logistics pressure in the Comprehensive Bonded Zone (CBZ) has continued to increase - daily traffic at the checkpoint reaches 18,000 vehicles, and surges to over 25,000 vehicles during peak periods. Facing bottlenecks in clearance efficiency, Ningbo Customs, with institutional innovation as the core, has fully leveraged Meishan CBZ's port-area integration advantages, promoting the transformation of supervision models from "manual-based" to "digital intelligence-driven."

To address clearance pressure from increasing traffic at checkpoint, Ningbo Customs officers conducted extensive research and data analysis. They identified a "tidal" traffic pattern in Comprehensive Bonded Zone with staggered peak periods, and accordingly proposed the "tidal lane" concept - switching some lanes to serve other vehicle types during peak periods based on traffic flow changes to increase the number of available channels for different types of vehicles during peak periods.

Starting in 2021, Ningbo Customs launched the intelligent transformation of checkpoint, and implemented "tidal lane" management mode. By leveraging Meishan CBZ's "port-area integration" advantages, it synchronized customs supervision operation site checkpoint clearance data to Comprehensive Bonded Zone checkpoints, enabling one-time clearance and synchronized checkpoint passage, and facilitating cargo flow between zone enterprises and terminals. The introduction of image recognition systems reduces the average vehicle passage time from 30s to about 10 s, initially alleviating clearance bottlenecks.

The efficient clearance capability brought by checkpoint upgrades is an important technical support for deepening port-area integration. It ensures smooth logistics within Meishan CBZ and lays a solid foundation for the port-area integration mode.

On the basis of hardware upgrades, Ningbo Customs identified poor data flow as a new bottleneck. In 2024, it collaborated with the Meishan Economic Development Center of Ningbo Economic and Technological Development Zone to jointly develop an integrated management information platform for Meishan CBZ, breaking down data barriers between customs, enterprises, and terminals. The platform integrates advanced technologies such as IoT, big data, and cloud computing, building a "regional cockpit" for multi-party data sharing among customs, enterprises, and port areas, achieving full-process visual monitoring of logistics, warehousing, and documentation. Seamlessly connected to enterprise WMS systems, it upgraded the traditional manual approval to system automatic verification, reducing enterprise declaration time to 2 min and labor costs by over 30%.

A relevant person in charge of Ningbo Longfei Logistics Co., Ltd. stated:"Previously, declarations required manual repeated verification, now the system automatically completes it, achieving almost seamless convenient clearance for enterprises, with efficiency greatly improved". The platform began trial operation in March 2025, and as of now, has completed system switching for 39 enterprises.

To meet the "on-time shipping" demands of cross-border e-commerce and international consolidation enterprises in 2024, Ningbo Customs pioneered the "one warehouse, multiple functions" international consolidation supervision mode. Through the innovative approach of "inspection before loading", this mode allows goods with different supervision attributes to be consolidated into the same container for export under customs supervision, supporting enterprises to complete all clearance processes including declaration, inspection, packing, and release in one-stop within warehouses. Ji Zhou, head of First Comprehensive Business Section of Meishan Customs under Ningbo Customs, stated: "Benefiting from zone-port integration, goods can be loaded and shipped immediately after completing all clearance processes, largely eliminating uncertainties of repeated packing/unpacking and shipping delays in traditional consolidation modes, improving logistics efficiency. The 'one warehouse, multiple functions' supervision mode is our vivid practice of optimizing CBZ enterprise policy services, providing new momentum for deeper and broader exploration in free trade pilot zone construction."

As of now, this mode has been promoted and applied in 5 enterprises in Meishan CBZ. From checkpoint transformation to data connectivity, to business model innovation, customs institutional innovation has always resonated with enterprise development. Ningbo Customs' institutional innovation not only optimized clearance processes but also promoted agglomeration of port-side industries and international trade, making Meishan CBZ a new highland for opening-up in the Yangtze River Delta.

Ningbo Customs will continue to deepen the construction of smart customs, continuously promote data interconnection among CBZs in Yangtze River Delta , achieve regional coordinated development, further optimize port business environment, and contribute to building a new development pattern of "dual circulation." (by Pan Keru, Wang Xinchang)

Disclaimer：The above content is translated from Chinese version of GACC. The GACC version shall prevail.