Pinglu Canal is an alternative, not a game changer for Southeast Asia

On 16 September, China’s Pinglu Canal was launched. The 134.2 kilometres of new waterway in Guangxi, linking the Xijiang river system to the Beibu Gulf at Qinzhou, is billed as a new highway from southwest China to ASEAN — more than 560 kilometres shorter than the existing inland detour via Guangzhou. That story is true as far as it goes — but it barely scratches the surface.

Direct service or feeder route

The canal is a river-sea waterway for vessels of up to 5,000 tonnes, large enough for bulk and intermediate goods, but far below the scale of deep-sea mainline shipping. Whether Southeast Asia can benefit from the new canal depends on whether a ship of that size already fits existing ports, industrial parks or inland supply chains — not simply on the strategic ambitions of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor.

The opening-day international service did not go to Hai Phong, Vietnam, which sits about 163 nautical miles from Qinzhou across the Gulf of Tonkin and has had a direct container service since late 2024. The ship went instead more than 1,000 kilometres south, to Can Tho, in the Mekong Delta. Automobile joint venture SAIC-GM-Wuling had already tested this route, transporting after-sales parts from Liuzhou, Guangxi, to overseas destinations and reporting a reduction of about 10% in logistics costs. The new Nanning-Can Tho direct service will run two trips a month, using river-sea vessels with about 4,900 deadweight tonnage and capacity for up to 500 twenty-foot equivalent units.

Nonetheless, the shorter route to Hai Phong is still relevant. Hai Phong remains a mature container gateway, with deep-water berths that can take ships far larger than a Pinglu hull. Qinzhou and Hai Phong were already linked by multiple weekly container services before the canal opened. Pinglu offers another way for cargo from Nanning and the wider Xijiang basin to reach Qinzhou, where it can be transferred to larger vessels already serving Hai Phong. In this second pattern, Pinglu acts as a feeder route into an established maritime network.

Vietnam’s two routes illustrate how a 5,000-tonne river-sea vessel can serve different roles within a shipping network. On the Nanning-Can Tho route, the vessel sails directly to its destination because Can Tho’s port facilities can accommodate it, and the vessel is suited to the cargo and journey. On the route to Hai Phong, by contrast, the vessel brings cargo to Qinzhou for onward transport on larger ships.

The vessel’s range also determines which model makes sense. A 5,000-tonne river-sea ship is better suited for short river-to-sea and coastal routes than longer maritime journeys. It can operate in the Gulf of Tonkin and along nearby stretches of the coast. Further south towards the Strait of Malacca, operating a vessel of this size becomes less economical.

For longer journeys, the vessel can offload its cargo at Qinzhou for transfer to larger ships heading south. This model suits inland cargo such as steel, fertiliser and pulp that needs to be moved to a port with access to mainline shipping.

Feeder service: transfer at Qinzhou

Malaysia is already making use of the Pinglu feeder service. A container service has linked Qinzhou and Kuantan since 2017, covering about 1,100 nautical miles in three to five days. Malaysia also has the supporting infrastructure and industrial links: the China-Malaysia “Two Countries, Twin Parks” model of international industrial cooperation, Guangxi Beibu Gulf International Port Group’s stake in Kuantan Port, and the East Coast Rail Link, which is being integrated into the logistics network.

Pinglu could feed cargo from the Xijiang River into this existing network at Qinzhou and transfer it to larger ships. Return cargo includes palm oil, frozen fruit and bird’s nest, which can travel by conventional container services. Bulk palm oil and other suitable cargo bound for China’s southwestern hinterland could also move upriver through Pinglu.

Indonesia offers a similar opportunity for inbound bulk cargo. Qinzhou already handles Indonesian coal, while Guangxi Jingui Pulp and Paper, a mill located at Qinzhou port and established by Indonesia’s Asia Pulp & Paper, imports wood pulp and chips from Indonesia. Such cargoes could potentially be transferred at Qinzhou to river-sea vessels for transport inland via Pinglu. For goods such as coal and wood pulp, where transport costs can weigh more heavily than speed, the canal could offer an additional route into China’s southwestern hinterland. It would not create these existing trade flows, but extend their reach along the Xijiang River.

Direct service: Laos-Pinglu-Guangxi

Lao cargo illustrates the direct-delivery model. As Laos is landlocked, Vietnam’s Vung Ang port serves as its gateway to maritime trade. Potassium chloride is now one of Laos’s main exports; in 2025, Laos supplied about 2.26 million tonnes to China, roughly 18% of China’s imports. In mid-September, a vessel carried about 3,000 tonnes of potassium chloride directly from Vung Ang to a fertiliser plant at Guigang, Guangxi, via the new Pinglu waterway, with the operator reporting that the transit time was cut down by five to seven days. Laos already ships this cargo by rail into China; Pinglu does not replace that link, but gives the same tonnage a river-sea hull that fits the plant.

Linking global markets through Singapore and Thailand

Once inland cargo reaches Qinzhou, it can also connect to established shipping services linking the port with Singapore and other regional hubs. The New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor connects Singapore with the southwestern inland hub of Chongqing. PSA International has invested in Qinzhou’s container terminal, which can handle barges using the waterway. Pacific International Lines already operates services between Qinzhou and Singapore, while shipping company OOCL’s SIS2 (Southeast Asia-Indian Subcontinent Service 2) calls at both ports.

Cargo carried through Pinglu can thus be transferred at Qinzhou to existing ocean-going services, rather than travelling all the way to Singapore on a smaller vessel. The same principle applies to established gateways such as Laem Chabang and Bangkok in Thailand, where larger ships carry cargo onwards to more distant markets.

Should Southeast Asia use Pinglu?

The handoff has its limits. A 5,000-tonne rating does not mean a ship can carry that much under all conditions: water depth can constrain loading, while passage through the Pinglu Canal’s three locks adds time and scheduling considerations. The river-to-sea transfer brings another constraint. Crews on international vessels and larger sea-going ships need specific route certification unless the vessel is under pilotage, whereby a licensed maritime pilot boards to guide the captain and bridge team safely through narrow channels, ports and docks. Customs, inspection and port procedures must also be coordinated across borders and between modes of transport. None of this makes the Pinglu Canal unviable, but it can mean longer transit times, lower cargo loads and more paperwork.

So the question for Southeast Asia is not whether to “use Pinglu”, but which cargo flows suit a 5,000-tonne river-sea ship and which existing networks can carry them onwards. Pinglu offers an alternative, not an automatic substitute: the Xijiang still has its locks, sailing schedules and freight agents along the older route east to Guangzhou.

The next 12 months will show whether these new links gain traction: whether the Can Tho service expands beyond two sailings a month, whether Qinzhou’s connections to Hai Phong, Kuantan and Singapore grow, and whether cargo that could use Pinglu continues to travel east anyway. Ultimately, it is service frequency and cargo economics, not the ribbon-cutting, that will determine the canal’s value.

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