Evaluation of Port–Hinterland Synergy Level Considering Fixed Asset Allocation and Social Commodity Circulation under the “Dual Circulation” Development Pattern

Abstract

“Port–hinterland synergy” means the development of port and hinterland should promote each other. The “dual circulation” development pattern indicates the requirement of exploring the domestic transportation demand and promoting the integration between ports and hinterlands. However, the current research on the synergy level between ports and hinterlands is not enough to meet the needs of constructing a “dual circulation” development pattern, and few studies have explored the influencing factors of port–hinterland synergy level directly, especially in the context of the new development pattern of “dual circulation”. After investigating the synergetic mechanism between ports and hinterlands, this study proposes to further consider the influence of fixed assets allocation and social commodity circulation on the synergy level under the “dual circulation” pattern. So, fixed asset investment and three different forms of commodity circulation activities are selected to represent the corresponding hinterland’s economic activities and added into the evaluation indices. To assess ports’ responsiveness to different kinds of transport demand, throughputs of each port are divided into those of domestic and foreign countries. Then this paper evaluates the level of port–hinterland synergy by the coupling synergy model, and the influence degree of these activities on the synergy level was studied with the partial least squares regression (PLS). The results show that there is heterogeneity in regional and port positioning in the port–hinterland synergy level, and that four selected economic activities’ improvement can enhance the port–hinterland synergy level. Among them, retail industry has the strongest positive effect, followed by tertiary industry, import and export trade, and fixed asset investment.