The central government will pour huge amounts of cash into ports
to improve handling capacity and allow it to keep up with rising
demand.
That was the promise of a senior transportation official in an
exclusive interview with China Daily on Friday during the
annual session of the National People's Congress, the top
legislature.
Three clusters of ports will take shape in the next five years,
in Bohai Bay, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Pearl River Delta.
The aim is to improve trading capacity and make the Chinese coast
home to some of the world's largest trading ports.
Qian Yongchang, chairman of China Communications and
Transportation Association, said China has boasted the world's
largest cargo throughput since 2004, and Shanghai is the world's
largest port in handling tonnage.
But handling capacity still needs to catch up with rising
demand, said the former minister of communications. So, the nation
will increase cargo handling capacity on the Chinese mainland from
3.8 billion tons in 2005 to 5 billion tons in 2010.
According to the Ministry of Communications, during the same
period, the total throughput of containers, measured in TEUs
(twenty-foot equivalent units), will increase from 74.41 million in
2005 to 130 million in 2010.
The country already owns 10 of the world's 25 largest sea
ports.
Qian said almost all of the major coastal ports are expected to
undergo expansion in the next few years. But the port development
program will focus on the transportation of containers and on raw
materials like metal ore, coal, and crude oil.
Shanghai will serve as the pillar of East China's port cluster
around the Yangtze River Delta, while Dalian, Tianjin and Qingdao
will form the three most important hubs around Bohai Bay in North
China.
Hong Kong, the world's second largest container terminal after
Singapore, is not counted as part of the trading capacity of the
Chinese mainland. But it is set to become the center of China's
southern port cluster with back-up from Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the
world's fourth-largest container port.
Port facilities in Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Ningbo,
Qingdao, Dalian, and Shenzhen will all see major building work,
added Qian.
After the port expansion program is complete, the Chinese
mainland will have the capacity to handle an additional 82 million
TEUs, 330 million tons of coal, 350 tons of metal ore and 80
million tons of crude oil in 2010.
Coal transportation capacity will be concentrated in North
China's ports including Qinhuangdao, Tangshan and Huanghua in Hebei
Province and Dalian.
Crude oil capacity will be expanded in Qingdao and Huizhou in
Guangdong Province.
And key cities for adding more container handling capacity will
be Shanghai, Dalian, Tianjin and Shenzhen.
In the last two decades, multinational firms and the lifting of
trade barriers have made coastal regions China's economic
powerhouses.
It took Shanghai port only five years to double cargo handling
capacity from 200 million tons to 400 million tons. The city's
cargo handling record was 443 million tons in 2005.
However, there is still a big gap between Shanghai and Singapore
in container handling capacity. The latest statistics show that
Shanghai handled 18.09 million TEUs in 2005, rising 24.2 percent on
the previous year. In contrast, Singapore handled 21.2 million TEUs
in the first 11 months of 2005, up 8.4 percent.
Qian urged China to build more factories near its coastlines and
main rivers. He quoted figures showing that the money spent on
logistics in China accounted for 30 percent of the aggregate cost
of goods, 10 percent higher than in developed countries.
Armed with adequate technology for environmental protection, he
said, coastal regions and the Yangtze River, China's longest
waterway, should be top choices for industrial and manufacturing
bases because of their transportation connections which give them
easy access to the world market.
(China Daily March 11, 2006)