Evolution of freight spatial pattern of China's coastal ports facing the Polar Silk Road

The Polar Silk Road (PSR) opens up China's maritime trade route through the Arctic to Northwest Europe and influences the cargo transport pattern of China's coastal ports, resulting in changes in the freight spatial pattern of port system. This study uses Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis to predict and analyse the evolution of freight spatial pattern of China's coastal ports facing the PSR. Oil, liquefied natural gas, iron ore, coal, timber and container are selected as important cargos to be studied. Results show that the northern ports have higher attraction potential than the southern ports. All cargos facing the PSR show significant spatial agglomeration characteristics. The local spatial patterns of northern ports tend to change towards high values, whereas the southern ports are the opposite. The Bohai Rim and Yangtze River Delta have a certain hierarchical structure for the PSR. The gravity centre of China's coastal port system is in the northern area facing the PSR, where the comprehensive cargo convergence capacity of large ports in the Bohai Rim is stronger than that in other regions. The role orientation and development prospects of different port freight spaces are classified.