Research on the Economic Benefits of the Green Port Supply Chain

Under the Dual Carbon Goal:

Take the Yangtze River Delta Port Cluster as an Example

Yiwen Pei

Faculty of Economics and Management, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai, 200135, China

Keywords: Dual-Carbon Policy, Green Ports, Economic Benefits.

Abstract: With the proposal of green development, the dual carbon policy is developing fast. In the context of achieving

carbon peak and carbon neutrality and promoting the green transformation and sustainable development of

the economy and society, ports, as one of the industries with high pollution and high emissions, have to face

a problem of green transformation. The improvement of policies makes it urgent to promote the green process

of ports. This report takes a typical port case study in the Yangtze River Delta as the research object, and

analyses it qualitatively using economic theories to analyse the impacts of green transformation on the benefits

and costs of ports in terms of short-term economic benefits, long-term economic benefits and externality

theories respectively. The analysis found that the greening of the port supply chain is costly in the short term,

with a negative impact on the growth rate of enterprises. However, from the perspective of long-term

economic benefits, along with the continuous improvement of carbon neutral policies, the full implementation

of green transformation is positive for enterprises. The greening of the port supply chain is also consistent

with positive externalities, with positive impacts on the environment and the lives of the surrounding

population.

1 INTRODUCTION

The core policy of ‘Dual carbon’ treats framework

as the ‘ 1+N ’ system (Xu,2022). Against the

background of accelerating progress towards the clear

milestones of carbon peaking by 2030 and carbon

neutrality by 2060，the green transformation of the

transport sector, as an important component of global

carbon emissions, has become a key link in achieving

sustainable development (Hao, Chen and

Zhang,2022). Ports, as hubs of international trade,

occupy a central position in the logistics supply chain.

As one of the busiest port clusters in China, the

Yangtze River Delta port cluster has a large scale of

total carbon emissions and energy consumption.

Therefore, promoting the construction of green port

supply chain is of essential significance to the low-

carbon development of the region and the whole

country. At present, domestic and international

research on port greening mostly focuses on the

application of emission reduction technologies in a

https://orcid.org/0009-0006-1966-2313

single link, and lacks a systematic analysis of the

economic benefits of the whole chain of the supply

chain. This paper takes the Yangtze River Delta port

cluster as the research object. By analysing the

internal logic of the green port supply chain between

low-carbon technology investment, energy structure

optimization and economic efficiency improvement,

we aim to reveal the cost-benefit characteristics of

port supply chain transformation under the dual-

carbon goal. This article tries to provide a theoretical

basis and practical path for the port cluster to realize

the synergistic development of environmental and

economic benefits.

2 ANALYSES OF THE CURRENT

SITUATION

The core elements of a green port supply chain cover

a wide range of areas such as shipping, port

operations, circular economy and knowledge sharing.

Pei, Y.

Research on the Economic Beneﬁts of the Green Port Supply Chain Under the Dual Carbon Goal: Take the Yangtze River Delta Port Cluster as an Example.

DOI: 10.5220/0014354000004718

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Engineering Management, Information Technology and Intelligence (EMITI 2025), pages 333-337

ISBN: 978-989-758-792-4

333

Technology pathways include clean energy, smart

management, carbon capture and waste recycling.

Tianjin Port is an early developer of green ports. As

early as 2008, Tianjin Port incorporated green port

construction into the port's construction and

development plan, and carried out green planning and

construction for the port in three stages from 2008 to

2020. As of 2015, the green coverage rate of Tianjin

Port has reached 20%, with a total green area of 7.95

million square meters. As one of the largest port

clusters in the world, the green transformation of the

Yangtze River Delta port cluster has experienced an

evolution from localized pilots to systematic

promotion. In 2017, Shanghai officially launched the

construction of “Green Port Shore Power

Demonstration Area”, and the high-voltage shore

power systems of Yangshan Port and Wusongkou

International Cruise Terminal were put into

operation, which can reduce carbon emissions by

2,040 kilograms in a single port call. Promoting the

development of green and low-carbon shipping

industry is an important goal, and according to the

requirements of the Water Transport Bureau of the

Ministry of Transportation and Communications, full

coverage of standardized shore power facilities at

berths of 2,000-ton terminals in Shanghai will be

achieved by the end of November 2023. Ningbo

Zhoushan Port has put into use liquefied natural gas

(LNG) collector trucks since 2010, and the total

number of collector trucks reached 700 by the end of

2018. The cumulative number of LNG filling stations

has also reached 11, which to a large extent meets the

demand for natural gas for port equipment. At

present, Ningbo Zhoushan Port is vigorously

promoting the construction of green port. Gantry

crane “oil to electricity” project has realized the full

coverage of Ningbo port area, terminal green lighting

coverage rate of more than 63%. LNG (liquefied

natural gas) truck scale is the largest in the country's

ports, container terminal shore power coverage rate of

60%. The application rate of potential energy

recovery technology for large electric machinery has

reached over 90%. By the end of 2023, 78 seaport

terminal enterprises in the Port of Shanghai had built

low-voltage, small-capacity standardized shore

power, and more than 90% of SIPG's terminal

facilities had been decarbonized. Green ship orders

from Shanghai's shipping enterprises have also grown

significantly. In 2024, Shanghai's three largest

shipbuilders will have delivered 69 ships and received

128 new orders, a year-on-year increase of 19% and

70% respectively (Chen, 2016) (Zhu, 2019).

However, the advancement of greening process

will encounter some practical problems while

proceeding in an orderly manner. Core ports in the

Yangtze River Delta, such as Shanghai Port and

Ningbo Zhoushan Port, have realized full coverage of

shore power and large-scale application of new

energy equipment, but small and medium-sized ports,

such as Nantong Port and Jiaxing Port. However,

small and medium-sized ports, such as Nantong Port

and Jiaxing Port, are limited by capital and technical

capacity, the popularization rate of new energy

equipment is less than 30%, and the energy

consumption of a single container is still higher than

the industry average by 15%. From the legal level,

green regulation in the specific implementation of the

regulatory standards are still inconsistent, the

coverage of pollutant receiving facilities is uneven,

affecting the cost of corporate compliance as well as

the deployment of facilities in various places

(Ren,Zhou and Zhu, 2023) (Zhao,Zhang and Zhao,

2025).

3 ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT

SITUATION

3.1 Short-Term Economic Benefits

Under the guidance of the “dual-carbon” strategy, the

Yangtze River Delta port cluster has accelerated the

construction of green port infrastructure, but this

process is usually accompanied by a rising economic

burden in the short term. As an example, Yangshan

Port, a subsidiary of Shanghai Port Group, has

invested more than 20 million yuan in the

construction of shore power facilities for ships by

2018 as a green demonstration project, which can

satisfy the simultaneous use of shore power by

multiple ships. The use of shore power technology by

ships at berth is a key technology to reduce

environmental pollution in ports. And shore power

technology also requires a lot of investment, shore

power system using high-voltage inverter technology,

need to support the ship and shore interface

transformation, but limited by high cost (single set of

equipment investment of about 5 million yuan) and

electricity price contradiction. Yangshan Port due to

administrative belonging to Zhejiang led to electricity

prices as high as 1.5 yuan / degree, while the port can

only charge 1.06 yuan / degree, a loss of 0.44 yuan

per unit of electricity, the economy is seriously

inadequate (Yuan,Ma and Wang, 2025). Until 2022,

according to the annual report of Shanghai Port

Group, the government subsidies related to the shore-

based power supply project totalled 152 million yuan,

EMITI 2025 - International Conference on Engineering Management, Information Technology and Intelligence

334

of which the deferred income portion is dominant. In

addition, the State has rewarded 245 projects and

about 736 million yuan through three batches of

subsidies. In addition to the shore power system, the

LNG cold energy recovery station and the automated

terminal intelligent control platform, with an initial

investment of up to billions of dollars, have brought

about significant costs for equipment procurement,

technical maintenance and personnel training. For

small and medium-sized port enterprises, it is even

more enormous cost pressure, these enterprises may

be unable to maintain operations and thus launch the

market competition. This characteristic of “heavy

investment in the first period and low return in the

short term” is in line with the typical characteristics

of cost-benefit analysis (CBA): in the short term, due

to the rigid costs of fixed asset investment and

institutional change, the financial pressure on

enterprises has risen markedly, and the economic

performance has declined in stages (Deng, Chen and

Liu, 2025).

3.2 Long-Term Economic Benefits

However, in the long run, the marginal benefits of

such green transformation investments are gradually

emerging. First of all, the large-scale application of

shore power technology in Yangshan Port

significantly reduces carbon emissions and fuel

consumption expenditure during the port call of ships,

which can reduce carbon emissions by more than

20,000 tons per year, and circumvents potential costs

for the possible rise of carbon tax in the future, such

as the full implementation of the European Union's

Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) in

2026, reflecting the long-term cost-saving advantage

(Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of

China, 2024). Avoiding potential costs reflects the

long-term cost-saving advantage. Secondly, the

construction of green port enhances the corporate

image and customer adhesion, and some European

and American high-end shippers explicitly stated that

they “preferred low-carbon terminals”, which brings

“green premium” and more stable transportation

cooperation relationship. In addition, the operation

efficiency of the fully automated terminal has been

increased by 30%, the loading and unloading time of

a single vessel has been shortened by 10 hours, and

the annual throughput capacity has exceeded 25

million TEUs. In addition to the benefits of green

transformation of Yangshan Port, Ningbo Zhoushan

Port in the Yangtze River Delta Port Group has

introduced new energy container trucks and loading

and unloading machinery on a large scale in recent

years. According to Ningbo Zhoushan Port Group,

the transportation cost per kilometer of electric

collector trucks is about 65% of that of diesel trucks,

while the maintenance frequency and repair cost of

electric forklift trucks have also dropped

significantly, reducing short-term operation and

maintenance costs.

3.3 Externality Theory

In addition, from the perspective of externality theory,

the environmental improvement and health benefits

brought by green ports are typical “positive

externalities”. With the reduction of carbon emissions,

the green GDP rate of Shanghai port will increase

from 93.71% in 2017 to 96.22% in 2025.

However, since traditional market mechanisms

cannot adequately account for these public benefits, it

is necessary for the government to internalize the

external contribution of enterprises and enhance the

economic attractiveness of green port construction

through financial subsidies, green bonds, and carbon

credit trading. This also explains why in recent years

the state has increased its investment in green and

low-carbon special funds in core ports such as

Yangshan and Ningbo Zhoushan.

4 SUGGESTIONS

4.1 Government Subsidies

One of the key issues that enterprises are concerned

about is profit, and the upfront cost of green

transformation is also already a considerable burden

for large port enterprises, and the burden is even

heavier for small and medium-sized enterprises,

which further compresses their profits. For

enterprises that have carried out shore power

transformation, there are some enterprises just to

complete the task, the use of shore power interface

and the hull of the shore power interface does not

match, the significance of the capital invested is

limited, and this is the enterprise in order to save the

short-term interests of the strategy used. For

enterprises that have not carried out green innovation,

in response to this problem of high short-term costs

of short-term green transformation, the government

can implement green transformation subsidies,

especially for small and medium-sized enterprises to

provide targeted assistance. The launch of green

funds and the development of green finance will lay

a solid foundation for the green transformation of

ports (Li,Zhang and Lin et al, 2019).

Research on the Economic Beneﬁts of the Green Port Supply Chain Under the Dual Carbon Goal: Take the Yangtze River Delta Port Cluster

as an Example

335

4.2 Mutual Assistance Among

Enterprises

Mutual assistance among alliances is an important

accelerating push to strengthen the development of

the industry, just like the shipping alliance 2M, the

Ocean Alliance and THE Alliance which are well

known to the public, although they are the same

shipping enterprises, the direction of the operation

they mastered is still different. Shipping as a high-

cost industry, the alliance can minimize the waste of

resources, focusing on the advantages of enterprises.

Therefore, port enterprises can also refer to this

initiative. During the period of green transformation,

enterprises can also conduct regular green reform

seminars to collect and organize successful cases for

sharing, so that more enterprises can have

information to base on to accelerate the green

transformation of port enterprises. In addition,

enterprises can also form a green transformation

alliance, similar conditions of enterprises can carry

out technical interoperability research.

4.3 Sectoral Regulation

In addition to moderate subsidies, the strength of

regulation should also be strengthened. For the

government, when enterprises carry out shore power

transformation, it can make it unified with the hull

interface, try to avoid the disadvantages of

transformation, but it can not be officially put into use.

Secondly, consideration can be given to setting up

monitoring points in the vicinity of port enterprises,

setting up relevant departments to record and

visualize the impact of green transformation on the

surrounding environment, and further standardizing

the carbon accounting standards of each enterprise.

5 CONCLUSIONS

From the above analysis, we can conclude that

although green ports are facing the pressure of “inputs

are greater than outputs” in the short term, from the

perspective of cost-benefit of the whole life cycle,

their long-term economic benefits are highly

sustainable, and the multiple dividends of policy,

market and society will be gradually realized in the

future. In terms of policy, environmental

measurement requirements will be further improved,

and the regulation of carbon emissions will be further

tightened. For the market, carbon trading may

become a new wind direction subsequent research can

build a multi-dimensional analysis framework: on the

one hand, collect energy consumption data, carbon

emission reduction inputs and throughput changes in

the last five years in major coastal ports and other

panel data, use the DEA model to calculate the pure

technical efficiency of the green technology inputs

and the scale of the efficiency, quantify the

investment in new energy equipment, the coverage of

the shore power facilities and other variables of the

economic efficiency of the marginal contribution.

Focus on the carbon accounting method of

enterprises. On the other hand, two scenarios of “10%

increase in green subsidies” and “20% increase in

carbon tax rate” are set up to simulate the decrease in

energy consumption per ton of cargo, the incremental

carbon trading revenue and the shortening of payback

period under different policy combinations to provide

quantitative bases for policy formulation and

enterprise decision-making. This paper aims to

provide a quantitative basis for policy formulation

and enterprise decision-making. The purpose of this

paper is to provide a planning basis and direction for

the green development of enterprises, and there is still

a long way to go for the green supply chain

transformation of port enterprises, which can be

supported by more favourable data after more

accurate calculations are made in the future. Greening

is not only a direction that the port industry needs to

work on, but also a topic that society as a whole is

constantly researching in order to achieve the goal of

“carbon peak and carbon neutral”.

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as an Example

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