OOCL likely to invest in Zhoushan port upgrade
Ningbo Port eyes 60pc investment in tie-up to build 12 box berths at facility
Ningbo Port Group, which runs the fourth-largest container operation in the mainland, plans to raise investment in an expansion of its Zhoushan port by almost 60 per cent to 15.7 billion yuan from the 10 billion yuan it announced at the start of the year.
Senior executives of the group said Orient Overseas Container Lines (OOCL), controlled by Hong Kong's Tung family whose roots are in Ningbo, is likely to invest in the first phase of the project. The first of the new berths planned are expected to enter service in 2008.
'We and OOCL intend to work together on the project,' said Ningbo Port Group president Li Linghong at a shipping conference in Shenzhen.
Zhoushan port was integrated into Ningbo port last year to prevent the two becoming caught up in a wasteful competition for investment.
Ningbo Port Group is one of the country's fastest-growing container operations. In the first seven months of this year, it handled 3.83 million 20-foot equivalent units (teu), up 37 per cent over the same period last year.
Now principally used for bulk shipping, Zhoushan will become the site of 12 container berths with a total of six million teu of capacity. The initial capacity of 500,000 teu per berth may eventually be raised to 700,000 teu, said Mr Li.
Zhoushan is an island that established itself long ago as a transshipment hub for bulk cargoes such as coal and oil, which are transferred to small vessels from big ones for distribution to cities along the coast or the Yangtze River.
Mr Li said Ningbo had run out of room for container port expansion, making it necessary for Zhoushan to adopt a dual vocation.
On the bulk cargo side, Zhoushan's handling capacity is slated to be raised to 150 million tonnes a year in three or four phases.
China estimates that its total container throughput will increase to 130 million teu by 2010 from 75.8 million teu last year.
Separately, the chief of the Pusan Port Authority said the growth of mainland ports had come at the expense of South Korean ports. Although Pusan lost its world No3 ranking to Shanghai last year, it continues to fight to regain lost ground, according to president Choo June-suk.
Pusan plans to build a further 30 berths by 2011 and establish a US$10 billion free-trade zone adjacent to the port. The first four berths should open before the end of this year.
'We believe that Pusan can maintain its role as the transshipment hub in North Asia as geographically it is positioned between China and Japan,' said marketing director Kang Boo-won.
Transshipment cargo from China and Japan accounts for 44 per cent of container throughput in Pusan, but growth has been flat as more ports have opened in China.
