Study On The Influence Of Port Efficiency Of Tangshan Port On The Opening Level Of Hinterland City

As of December 2022,the port throughput of Tangshan Port has jumped to the second place in the world,becoming the largest foreign trade import iron ore receiving and unloading port and the largest coal exporting port in China.Tangshan Port has a wide range of hinterland covering areas in Hebei Province,Shaanxi Province and Shanxi Province,including cities such as Shijiazhuang,Xi’an and Taiyuan.As it is geographically located mostly in the central and western part of China,the level of openness of other hinterland cities,except for Tianjin,Xi’an,Tangshan and Taiyuan,is relatively lagging behind.How to use Tangshan Port’s own advantages to stimulate the opening up of the hinterland cities has become an urgent problem for Tangshan Port and its hinterland cities to solve.Based on theories such as growth pole theory,agglomeration theory,port-city relationship theory and spatial econometric theory,the influence mechanism of port efficiency on the opening-up level of hinterland cities is analysed from two perspectives: direct influence and spatial spillover effect.The current situation of the development of Tangshan Port is then analysed in terms of infrastructure,port throughput and the types of goods transported by the port;after using the smoke and feather model to delineate the hinterland of Tangshan Port,the characteristics of the openness of the hinterland cities are analysed in terms of economic development,import and export volume and actual utilisation of foreign direct investment.In order to select the appropriate variables for the empirical study,the analysis of the openness of Tangshan port hinterland cities was conducted.In order to select suitable variables for the empirical analysis,the port efficiency of Tangshan Port was determined and comprehensively evaluated by using the three-stage DEA analysis method;combined with the development characteristics of the port and the hinterland cities,comprehensive indicators to measure the openness level of the hinterland cities were formulated,and the results were obtained and comprehensively evaluated by using the entropy weighting method.After determining other control variables,a spatial Durbin model is applied to empirically analyse the influence of Tangshan port efficiency on the openness level of hinterland cities.The results of the study show that there is a significant positive correlation between port efficiency and the openness level of hinterland cities,and there is a significant positive spillover effect between the openness level of hinterland cities.Accordingly,corresponding policy recommendations are put forward in the direction of both the port and the hinterland cities.