An oil tanker docks at Zhoushan Port. [Photo/WeChat account: china-zjftz]

The Zhoushan area of the China (Zhejiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone in Zhejiang, East China's Zhejiang province, has been using digital means to improve efficiency.

Paperless customs clearance has accelerated the administrative approval of international ships, and Zhoushan is the first city in China to open a "single window" for international ships, enabling them to handle all customs clearance procedures at a single department.

This saves cargo owners nearly $100 million in rent per year, a figure calculated based on 5,000 international ships each year, and the cost for customs clearance per ship has been reduced from nearly 10,000 yuan ($1,570) to less than 3,000 yuan.

In recent years, Zhoushan has seen increased river-sea combined transportation and transferred 40 percent of iron ore and 50 percent of grain along the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

The river-sea combined transportation platform has helped increase the efficiency of cargo transfer. The platform has collected 1.6 billion pieces of data related to ports and ships and is capable of offering more than 100 services related to customs clearance, pilotage, and logistics.

Statistics show that the platform is viewed more than 1.3 million times and serves over 3,000 companies and 37,000 ships per year.

Another bonded bunker oil scheduling service system, which started operating in 2019, has helped lower refueling costs for shipowners in Zhoushan and increased the usage efficiency of anchorage grounds by 30 percent.

The system has helped refuel more than 6,840 ships with nearly 5.3 million tons of bonded bunker oil since its inception.