Logistics costs push up prices experts recommend reducing highway tolls

Following the release of toll highway results announced by 12 provinces including Beijing, Shanghai, and Shandong on the 16th, Guangdong Province also joined the "big army" on the 17th.

According to the Guangdong Toll Highway Information Disclosure Table, in 2010, Guangdong toll highway tolls amounted to 35.479 billion yuan, repayment of debt 18.223 billion yuan, and the amount of repayments accounted for approximately 52% of charges, and an average of 2.798 million yuan per km per year. As of the end of 2010, the debt balance reached 226.743 billion yuan.

The survey results show that at present, there are 218 mainline toll stations in Guangdong, with a toll mileage of 12,678.63 kilometers, accounting for approximately 6.67% of the total mileage.

Experts in the industry stated that the new round of specific clean-up of toll roads is “understanding”, which is more advanced than the previous opaque situation. However, due to the high intensity of charges, it has “great impact” on logistics costs. In the current environment of rising domestic prices and high CPI, prolonging the toll period or reducing the toll rate of toll highways is conducive to reducing the burden on logistics costs.

Debt is more than ten billion

Operating income and debt "scissors difference" expanded

At present, it has been four months since the special one-year toll-road clean-up work was carried out in June this year across the country. According to public information, as of the 16th, some 12 provinces including Beijing, Shanghai, and Guizhou have announced the results of the toll survey of toll highways. The phenomenon of high tolls on toll highways is worrying. On the 17th, Guangdong announced that the debt, which was as high as 226.743 billion yuan, was almost 30% of that of the previous 12 provinces.

As of December 16, 2010, Beijing, Shanghai, Guizhou and other 12 provinces toll road charges amounted to 102.57 billion yuan, but the cumulative debt balance was as high as 759.35 billion yuan, operating income and debt situation, the "scissors" further expanded.

From the operating point of view, although the charges for toll highways in 12 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities amounted to several hundred billion yuan, the profit situation was not optimistic. At present, with the exception of Beijing toll roads with positive profits and Liaoning and Ningxia profits of 0, the profits of the other nine provinces are all negative, and the gap is showing an expanding trend.

In the case of accumulative debt balance of toll roads, Jiangsu, Yunnan, and Shandong all exceeded 100 billion yuan, of which, Guangdong’s accumulated debt balance was as high as 226.743 billion yuan, and Jiangsu’s accumulated debt balance reached 133.81 billion yuan, which is the lowest in Ningxia, but accumulated. The debt balance is also 14.75 billion yuan.

In mid-June this year, the Ministry of Transport and other five departments issued notices to carry out a one-year special cleanup of toll highways nationwide. At present, the special clean-up of national toll highways has entered the second phase of “self-checking and self-correction”. Many people in the industry have stated that if self-examination and self-correction are carried out in the reporting process, local authorities may report to themselves and involve interest issues. This may lead to false reports, which will be detrimental to the development of later work.

Dong Yan, a researcher at the National Transportation Research Institute’s Institute of Comprehensive Transportation, said that according to the current situation, the “toll book of the toll road is still not transparent, but it still has doubts about its accuracy, but it still has to be compared step".

Toll road "passive loan repayment"

Logistics costs withstand high pressure

According to the published data, in 2010, Shandong toll highways had a charge of 18.9 billion yuan, of which the loan repayment amounted to 15.5 billion yuan, and the amount of repayments accounted for about 82% of the total charge. The average annual charge was 2.11 million yuan per km, while the average of Guangdong The annual charge of 2.798 million yuan per kilometer is also relatively "appropriate".

Compared to Shandong and Guangdong, Beijing charges RMB 6 billion in 2010, and the average annual charge per kilometer reaches more than RMB 7 million, ranking the top in the provinces that have already been announced. Among them, about 2.1 billion yuan was repaid, and the repayment rate was only about 30%, which is the lowest among the provinces that have already been announced. Among them, the additional charges of up to RMB 2.014 billion were only used to repay the interest, but the loan principal only repaid RMB 52 million.

It is understood that Beijing’s toll highways have been completed and opened to traffic since 1987. Cumulative bank loans and other debts totaled 45.5 billion yuan. As of the end of 2010, the debt balance remained at 43.923 billion yuan. This means that Beijing has only repaid tens of millions of yuan in debt on average every year for 23 years.

According to relevant regulations, the longest period for charging the government's repayment roads is no more than 15 years, and the longest period in the central and western regions is 20 years. The toll of commercial highways is relatively long, with a maximum of 25 years, and a maximum of 30 years in the Midwest. Industry sources said that the huge debt pressure will further pressure the passing vehicles on the toll roads, which will also increase the cost of logistics.

In addition, the maintenance costs and operating costs of toll highways are not low, and the gap is also large. According to calculations, the maintenance and operating costs of Beijing toll highways are 2,383.7 thousand yuan per kilometer per year, while the maintenance and operating costs of toll highways in Guizhou, Yunnan, and Ningxia provinces are less than 400,000 yuan per kilometer per year, of which the lowest in Yunnan is. The cost of road maintenance and operation is 321,800 yuan per kilometer per year.

Dong Yan believes that the maintenance and operating costs in different regions “are not really that big”, just as people in different regions may have high or low prices for buying refrigerators, but there is not much difference in maintenance costs.

Logistics costs drive up prices

Experts: Reduce Charges on Logistics "Reduce"

Dong Yan stated that in the construction of the expressway, there are not many people who actually make money from the state's finances. Generally, they rely on the model of “loan-building roads, reimbursement of loans”. At present, the mileage of China's expressways is about more than 70,000 kilometers. According to the plan, the future domestic high-speed mileage will reach more than 100,000 kilometers.

The situation of high highway tolls has always been criticized by the logistics industry. The cost of passing bridges, oil prices, and labor costs have become the “three big mountains” that have weighed on the logistics industry. This has caused the current “rising sound” prices to become constrained. Statistics show that at present domestic logistics costs account for as much as 18% of GDP, while developed countries control this data at about 10%, and domestic logistics costs are close to double the level of developed countries.

Ma Renhong, deputy director of the Guangdong Provincial Logistics Association, said that as a logistics industry, it is hoped that the faster the better, but the toll road site will affect the efficiency of logistics. If the expressway is not charged, it is not right. Using capital to accelerate the construction of infrastructure is a good policy.

However, due to the excessive charging standards, this good policy also faces many public criticisms. According to a research report released by the World Bank, at present, the average per-kilometre toll of German trucks is approximately US$0.15, while that of China is between US$0.12 and US$0.21. The national income of the two countries differs by several dozen times. Logistics costs have become an important “driver” of high prices.

Ma Renhong believes that the problem now facing is not the question of collecting fees without fees, and the problem of overcharging fees. If an expressway can be used for fifty to sixty years, but investors “build and set up cards”, it will take more than 20 years to recover the cost of 50 to 60 years. This is unreasonable, “0.5-0.7 yuan per kilometer. The cost is very high. I hope that the state will use financial recovery, extend the charging period, or lower the charging standards, thus giving the logistics industry a "lightening."