Hong Kong Admits The Cost Gap—But Can It Win Back Your Cargo?

If you move goods out of the Pearl River Delta, you already know the drill. A barge leaves Dongguan or Foshan, slides down the river, and either stops at Kwai Tsing to connect to an ocean vessel or keeps going to Nansha, Yantian, or Shekou.

For years, the math has been tilting away from Hong Kong. And this week, the government finally said the quiet part out loud.

Hong Kong's Transport and Logistics Secretary, Mable Chan, told the Legislative Council on Wednesday that the government has completed a preliminary review of the permit fees charged to river trade vessels. The stated goal is to keep Hong Kong "competitive and attractive" as a transshipment hub.

That matters, because river trade isn't a side business for Hong Kong. Laden container movements between Hong Kong and mainland China account for more than 40% of the territory's annual laden container throughput. If the river connection weakens, the whole port weakens with it.

And the numbers show it's already weakening. River vessel arrivals at Kwai Tsing fell from 4,344 in 2023 to 3,519 in 2025-a 19% drop that stripped roughly 110,000 TEU out of the system in two years. Hong Kong's total container throughput came in at 12.99 million TEU in 2025, down 5.1% year on year.

The headline reason is cost. Mainland ports in Guangzhou and Shenzhen have been offering financial subsidies and exemptions from mandatory pilotage requirements to inland waterway operators. Hong Kong's counterpunch is a multiple-entry permit scheme-the industry calls it "buy five, get five free"-that lets an operator make up to ten port calls a month for the price of five single entries. That's a helpful discount, but it hasn't been enough to stop the drift.

Here's the part that matters more than any single fee line: the review is a recognition, not a solution. As one analysis put it, the government has promised competitiveness, but for now "the promise of competitiveness is, for now, a promise". No revised fee level. No timeline. No decision on whether the multiple-entry discount gets restructured. Shippers and barge operators still don't have a firm basis to price their 2027 routings.

If the revised fees close the gap, transshipping through Kwai Tsing becomes more viable for cargo from Dongguan, Foshan, and other upriver manufacturing centres. If the review stalls, expect more volume to drift toward Nansha, Yantian, and Shekou, where the subsidies and pilotage waivers are already live.

The uncomfortable truth is that a fee review in Hong Kong doesn't solve your problem if your cargo is already sitting on a dock in the Delta, waiting for a decision.

You're dealing with a moving target. The cost of routing through Hong Kong depends on a fee structure that hasn't been finalized. The alternative-routing through a mainland gateway-comes with its own set of variables: different terminal handling charges, different pilotage rules, different cutoff times, and different levels of congestion. And none of those variables show up on a single rate sheet.

That's exactly where a forwarder who actually knows the Delta and the Hong Kong gateway can make a difference.

At Xiamen AE Global, we've been moving cargo through South China's ports since 2018. We're a government-licensed forwarder with IATA, FIATA, FMC, and NVOCC credentials-which means we're not just booking space and hoping the barge shows up. We have direct relationships with carriers, barge operators, and terminal contacts across the region.

Here's what that looks like when the routing decision gets complicated:

1. We compare the actual door-to-door cost, not just the headline fee. A lower permit fee in Hong Kong only matters if the onward ocean connection and the inland trucking leg still pencil out. We run the numbers across gateways-Kwai Tsing, Nansha, Yantian, Shekou-so you're choosing based on total landed cost, not a single line item.
2. We know which gateways are actually moving. A port can advertise a pilotage exemption and still have a two-day wait at the berth. With over 100 overseas agents worldwide and on-the-ground partners in the Delta, we're hearing what's really happening at the terminals-not just what's in the press release.
3. We handle the handoff when you switch routes. Moving a shipment from a Hong Kong transshipment plan to a direct mainland call creates a customs and documentation puzzle. Our destination agents manage that transition so your containers don't sit waiting for paperwork to catch up with the new plan.
4. We keep your options open. Because we handle LCL consolidation in-house, we're not passing your cargo to a third party who might prioritize someone else's boxes. And if ocean schedules or barge availability shift, our IATA-certified team can evaluate air freight for the time-sensitive portion-so a routing decision doesn't turn into a delivery failure.

We've moved more than 12,000 TEUs in a single year with a 98.6% on-time delivery rate for our SME clients. That doesn't happen by luck. It happens when you know the ports, know the people, and know how to pivot before the market forces your hand.

Hong Kong is finally acknowledging that the cost gap with mainland gateways is real, and the fee review is a step in the right direction. But a preliminary review with no final numbers and no timeline isn't something you can build a 2027 supply chain around.

If you're shipping out of the Pearl River Delta, the smartest move is to stop treating Hong Kong and the mainland gateways as an either/or decision-and start treating them as a portfolio of options that need to be actively managed.

At Xiamen AE Global, we don't just move boxes. We help our clients choose the right gateway for the right cargo at the right time-and keep it moving when the rules change.

Shipping out of South China and unsure which gateway makes sense? Contact Xiamen AE Global today-and let's run the numbers on your next routing decision.