On the long coastline of the Bohai Sea, the ports of Shandong, Liaoning, Hebei and Tianjin are undergoing large-scale construction work, and all have proposed ambitious port development plans. But without exception, they are on the same coastline and in a sea area, and they have the same economic hinterland. There is actually not much difference in function and positioning.

This kind of homogeneous competition situation is also playing out in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta. The "dragon and tiger fight" between Shanghai Port and Ningbo Port has long been a "life and death showdown". In the Pearl River Delta region, planned investment in new berths in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Zhuhai, and Dongguan is still hot, and competition will undoubtedly intensify.

Dagang is competing, and the little-known port is also joining the competition. There are 9 ports densely spreading from north to south on the 763.12 kilometers coastline of northern Jiangsu. Everyone yelled "Prospering the county with a port", but none of them had enough logistics to match. They were in a state of "hungry" all year round. At best, they were just temporary transshipment ports, like small sampans under the 10,000-ton giant ship, but for Shanghai, in the true sense of the "international shipping center", plays the role of a runner-up.

Competing in various places to build ports has brought about many negative problems: First, the allocation of some port resources is unscientific. In particular, the deep-water shoreline is a scarce resource. Because of blind development that does not meet the standards, resources are wasted seriously. Second, the logistics layout among some ports is unreasonable. As far as the regional economy is concerned, the supply of goods is limited. Without the support of the deep economic hinterland, the port will not live long. Third, competition among some ports is disorderly. The construction of homogeneous docks and berths will inevitably have fierce competition for the supply of goods in the same hinterland.

The port is a strategic logistics platform that requires deep economic hinterland support and connection with railways, highways and large rivers in order to maximize its logistics benefits. The reason why Shanghai Port has become an international shipping center is that it is supported by the 300 kilometers deep economic hinterland of Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou and Nanjing, as well as the Yangtze River, Shanghai-Nanjing Railway and highways.

Therefore, the port construction needs to be included in the national strategic plan, and the overall plan should be taken into consideration. The above-mentioned repeated construction and malicious competition are all due to the lack of strategic planning and the lack of awareness of the overall situation of the whole country. The local governments start from their local interests and have a strong impulse to achieve political achievements. They use the large investment, large-scale and large-scale actions of the port. Create a sensational effect in order to achieve rapid GDP growth.

The repeated construction of ports, unbalanced layout, and disorderly competition have attracted the attention of the central government. Combining arrays through port integration has become an inevitable choice for all localities to solve this problem.

Port integration is the general trend, but due to the existence of regional differences, as in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the ports themselves are "fat" in each region. The interest-driven psychology is strong, and the local protectionism is serious. This makes the integration of the ports in the affairs, responsibilities, rights and interests. The resistance encountered varies from one aspect to another. Port integration is very difficult, so the choice of integration mode must be cautious, and ultimately market-oriented is the fundamental.