ZHUHAI, Guangdong, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Macao International Airport (MIA) on Wednesday launched pilot cargo palletization on neighboring Hengqin island in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, as part of its upstream cargo terminal project currently under construction.
This means that security screening and palletization, which is the stacking of goods for transportation, for cargo shipped from the Chinese mainland to overseas destinations via Macao will be gradually expanded from MIA to Hengqin.
Construction of the Hengqin cargo terminal, located about 13 kilometers from MIA, began in October 2025, with a planned gross floor area of approximately 97,600 square meters. It is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2026 and become officially operational in the first half of 2027, serving as an extension of MIA for security screening and palletization to facilitate cargo transport between the mainland and Macao.
The pilot palletization took place at a logistics center near the Hengqin terminal project site. Later on Wednesday, the cargo, comprising e-commerce goods and daily-use items such as toys and watches, was transported via Hengqin Port to MIA, bound for Malaysia and the Philippines.
Sam Hou Fai, chief executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR), Guangdong Vice Governor Zhang Guozhi, and several other officials from Macao and Guangdong attended a launch ceremony for the pilot palletization initiative.
Ng Wai Han, secretary for economy and finance of the Macao SAR government, said at the ceremony that the launch of the pilot palletization marked an important milestone in the project, adding that Macao and Hengqin will seize this opportunity to further improve their trade and logistics ecosystems.
The construction of the Hengqin cargo terminal has been listed as one of the tasks aimed at supporting Hong Kong and Macao SARs in better integrating into and serving the country's overall development under China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030). It is also included in Macao's third five-year plan for economic and social development for the same period, released by the SAR government last week.
According to the SAR's plan, the terminal is expected to be capable of handling 300,000 tonnes of cargo per year, three times MIA's current annual air cargo processing capacity of roughly 100,000 tonnes.
Customs checks were conducted in advance to reduce time spent at the border during the pilot operations. After passing these checks, containers carrying the pilot cargo were sealed with smart locks recognized by both mainland and Macao customs in Hengqin. This allowed customs officers at Hengqin Port to inspect only the locks, instead of screening the containers, thereby facilitating the border-crossing process.
Once put into regular operation, the Hengqin cargo terminal project is expected to help enterprises reduce not only transport time but also logistics costs.
"Traditionally, outbound e-commerce cargo has to be transported by trucks with cross-border license plates from collection points to destinations, meaning a rather high logistics cost," said Zhang Lifen, deputy commissioner of Hengqin Customs.
"If the cargo is to be processed at the upstream terminal, it can first be transported by trucks with regular mainland license plates to the terminal, before being transferred to trucks designated for cross-border transport, which will efficiently cut operating costs for companies," she explained.
"The new cross-border land-air transport model will make exports more efficient and less burdensome for enterprises," said Luo Rui, who works for a Guangdong-based logistics-related company.
Earlier this week, the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin, where the new cargo terminal is located, launched a package of favorable policies to support the building of an international air transport hub across Macao and Guangdong, including subsidies for international freight forwarders using the Hengqin upstream cargo terminal for inbound and outbound business.
Wu Chuangwei, director of the economic development bureau of the cooperation zone, said on Wednesday that the zone will continue to improve cross-border air cargo supervision and customs clearance coordination, facilitating the efficient flow of cross-border logistics resources. Such efforts, he added, will further promote the appropriately diversified development of Macao's economy and market integration in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Enditem
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