Recently, CIMC IoT, a subsidiary of CIMC Group, won the bid for the process tender section of Lianyungang International Automobile Green Intelligent Logistics Center Project (hereinafter referred to as: Lianyungang Project), which is a national logistics hub and short board supplementing key support project, and another major transportation new infrastructure project won by CIMC IoT after the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Hong Kong port artificial island automated parking project.

The project mainly serves the roll-on roll-off automobile import and export business in Lianyungang, with a planned 5200 parking spaces, all using AGV robot automatic parking. After completion, it will not only become the first robotic parking lot at the port, but also the world’s largest robotic parking lot. Empowered with intelligence, CIMC once again takes the lead in the global intelligent parking industry.

As the eastern stronghold of the New Asia-Europe Continental Bridge and the logistics cooperation base of “Belt and Road” in the Sino-Kazakhstan region, Lianyungang applies digital and intelligent technology to the roll-on roll-off automobile transportation, speeds up the digital transformation of the port, and implements the Party’s strategic deployment of “Accelerating the construction of a strong transportation country and digital China, promoting the deep integration of digital economy and real economy” through practical actions. The project also indicates that CIMC participates in the construction of the national logistics hub by empowering new transportation infrastructure, helping Lianyungang become a sample of a smart port with innovative leadership.

Over 200,000 vehicles were exported from Lianyungang, but only 9,000 parking spaces are available.

As an important node of the Maritime Silk Road, the port has a pivotal role in the construction of “Belt and Road”.

The “Layout and Utilization Plan of Mainstream River Ports and Port Shoreline Protection” was issued by the Ministry of Transport and the National Development and Reform Commission on November 24th. The plan mentions accelerating the construction of smart ports and promoting the digital transformation and intelligent development of key port areas. Efforts will be made to promote coordinated ship-to-shore operations, automated terminal and yard construction, in order to actively facilitate the research and application of automation and intelligent operation technology in port loading and unloading, yard operations, etc.

Lianyungang Port is the largest seaport in Jiangsu. Since 2022, Lianyungang Port has taken advantage of its strategic position as the starting point of the New Asia-Europe Continental Bridge and international hub port to rapidly develop its rolling stock automobile business. On November 26, 2022, the number of vehicles exported from Lianyungang Port exceeded 200,000 and is expected to reach 350,000 by 2025. Its trade has covered over 40 countries and 100 cities globally. Lianyungang Port ranks among the top three in the country by automobile export volume.

Automobile is regarded as one of the icons of an industrialized nation. According to the latest data released by China Customs, the number of automobiles exported from China reached 1.91 million in the first eight months of 2022, close to the full-year figure of 2021, surpassing Germany and becoming the second largest automobile exporter in the world, just after Japan.

“This acceleration”, new energy vehicles has become one of the core growth points. From January to September this year, the export of new energy vehicles reached 389,000, a more than 1-fold increase compared to the same period last year.

It is understood that, prior to shipment, exported vehicles are stored at the terminal yard for inspection and loading, usually for about a week. However, the current yard used for storage of exported vehicles in Lianyungang Port only covers an area of 150,000 square meters and has 9,000 parking spaces, which is far from sufficient to meet the rapid increase of exported vehicles. In order to enhance the port’s storage capacity, the Lianyungang International Automobile Green Intelligent Logistics Center has emerged.

All 5200 parking spaces adopt robotic parking to achieve an annual turnover of 180,000 units

The Lianyungang International Automotive Green Intelligent Logistics Center Project is a key supportive project for the national logistics hub, which is also a medium- and long-term development of the port based on the whole vehicle import and export business. The project focuses on building a main engineering hub for automotive logistics that serves the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta and coordinates the development of the Longhai-Lanxin Economic Belt.

The project is located in the core area of the port in the Lianyungang Free Trade Zone in Jiangsu, with a total investment of 336 million yuan. The total floor area is 30,200m2, and a 7,400m2 intelligent three-dimensional garage with 5 levels is planned to be built with 5,200 parking spaces fully equipped with AGV automated robotic parking systems. The total number of parking space will be increased by 9 times compared to traditional ground parking and with 48 AGV robots to be run at full capacity, it can serve up to 368 vehicles per hour. The annual turnover capacity can reach 180,000 vehicles, and once completed, it will become the world’s largest AGV intelligent parking building.

Efficiency is key at the ports. With the integration of technologies such as the Internet of Things(IoT), big data, artificial intelligence, and autonomous driving, the car park management system can be intelligently dispatched. Before a car arrives at the port, the car park management system will receive an inbound instruction from the port management system, and can pre-allocate a parking space. Based on the port operation plan, the car park management system generates a vehicle outbound plan, and the intelligent dispatch system will lock the outbound vehicle. The vehicle can be taken out earlier or moved to a closer parking space, reducing the outbound time, and achieving efficiency through intelligence.

At peak times, AGV can be dispatched across floors for coordinated work, achieving the highest overall efficiency with single parking and retrieval efficiency reaching up to 228 vehicles per hour.

AGV can freely move under the parking space, and two AGVs can meet flexibly in the same lane. The garage operation management system has automated, digitalized, and visualized management of vehicle information and equipment operating status, effectively improving management efficiency.

In terms of green and low-carbon aspects, the roof of the garage adopts photovoltaic green power to achieve integrated “light storage and charging”. In addition to meeting the electrical needs of all garage equipment, the surplus power can also support the power needs of other port operations. Compared to traditional self-driving parking lots, the double reduction advantage of AGV robot parking is obvious, with a 70% reduction in carbon emissions for each stored vehicle, and a reduction of 9 tons of carbon emissions per year.

The person in charge of the China International Intelligent Connected Cloud Port Project, Han Leijun, introduced that the development of smart ports is an inevitable trend faced by all port enterprises worldwide. In the construction of smart ports, the role of AGV robots as intelligent handling equipment has become increasingly prominent in recent years. This is the first time that China International’s AGV has been applied in a port and serves the import and export automobile business of Lianyungang Port. The project presents itself as an intelligent warehouse, which is actually a visual and intelligent storage created through digital technology.

Han Leijun, the head of the CIMC IoT Lianyungang project, introduced that the garage management system of the Lianyungang project is integrated with the port administration system and the intelligent dispatch system, forming an innovative model of “wide online information interconnection, intelligent off-line parking space dispatch, and online and offline coordination”. In addition, the intelligent gate outside the garage replaces manual inspection, and the AGV robot inside the garage replaces daily manual inventory, using intelligent equipment to replace manual labor, which can save labor and accurately, quickly, and dynamically record data. This realization of automated data collection has a demonstration effect on the intelligent upgrade of traditional port yards.

CIMC Technology Empowering Technology Helps Promote the Construction of a Smart Port in Lianyungang as a ‘China Model’

In September 2021 and January 2022, the Ministry of Transport and the State Council respectively released the “Action Plan for the Construction of New Infrastructure in the Field of Transportation (2021-2025)” and the “14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of a Modern Comprehensive Transportation System”. It requires the promotion of automation of terminal operation equipment, acceleration of the construction and transformation of new automated container terminals and yards, digitalization of the entire process and cycle of port construction maintenance and operation, and speeding up of comprehensive applications such as intelligent scheduling, intelligent yards, intelligent gateways, intelligent handling, intelligent security early warning, and autonomous driving in the port area.

CIMC is one of the leading enterprises in China that entered the vertical parking industry early on. CIMC IoT is fully responsible for CIMC’s smart parking business. At present, relying on CIMC’s ability and advantages in high-end equipment manufacturing, intelligence, and IoT technology, CIMC IoT has built and completed thousands of smart vertical garage projects in many places across the country, with many projects becoming industry benchmarks.

With 30 years of technological precipitation and accumulated project experience, China International United leverages technology to continuously innovate and lead in multiple fields, expanding innovative applications in various domains. As the era of intelligence arrives, the self-developed double-deck AGV parking robot of China International United is poised to be widely used in airports, ports, hospitals, industrial parks and other areas. By integrating Internet of Things, big data and autonomous driving technologies, the parking process will become intelligent, vehicle management will become visual and operation will become more efficient.

“Port is an important logistics hub for a country which represents the situation of real economy and its level of digitalisation will define the core competitiveness of a port, thus different major ports take digitalisation as a key catalyst in the transformation and development of ports.” Cheng Hongda, Managing Director of CIMC IoT, said that CIMC IoT has realized the intelligent, automated and unmanned innovative demonstration application of ro-ro car yard in Lianyungang Port through IoT and big data, which has helped to promote the transformation and upgrading of the port and improve the quality and efficiency of the enterprise, and also contributed to the “CIMC solution” for the upgrade of global port intelligence.

According to Cheng Hongda, as the information technologies such as IoT, autonomous driving, and 5G become increasingly mature, and with ports being a typical enclosed operational scenario, using autonomous AGV vehicles to achieve transportation, loading and unloading, and handling in ports will become an inevitable trend in port development. The enhanced efficiency driven by digitalisation is surpassing the impact of physical facilities and equipment, and through model innovation and technological empowerment, the operation of ports will achieve a leap from quantity to quality.

We are entering into a digital era of the global economy, technologies such as IoT, big data, and artificial intelligence will become opportunities for the development of the shipping industry. In recent years, empowered by technological advancement, the construction of smart ports has been growing rapidly in the port industry. Through the automation upgrade of the entire process of traditional docks and the construction of the next-generation intelligent docks, the construction of smart ports is accelerating domestically.

Public information shows that tech giants including Tencent, Huawei, Baidu, Alibaba, JD, etc. have all laid out plans for building smart ports, providing digital connectivity and management services for personnel, goods, containers, ports, and ships, optimizing the logistics process and helping ports to reduce costs and increase efficiency.