CHINA's seaports along its several thousand kilometres of coastline have been greatly updated with the influx of foreign investment in recent years. More than 50 new docks with a total handling capacity of 50 million tonnes have been built in the past decade. Many have special-use docks with modern handling facilities. Loans from Japan, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have helped renovate major mainland seaports, including those at Qinhuangdao, Rizhao, Tianjin, Shanghai, Lianyungang, Ningbo, Guangzhou and Xiamen. Joint ventures have been generated in many of these ports. The Tianjin Xingang Sinor Terminal Co, a Sino-Norwegian joint venture set up in March last year and the first one of its kind in China, started to make profits three months after going into operation, according to officials of the company. An agreement on forming the Shanghai Container Terminal Service Co was signed in September last year between Hutchison Whampoa of Hongkong and the Shanghai Harbour Bureau. The project, with a total investment of six billion yuan (about HK$8.08 billion at official rates), is expected to turn Shanghai harbour into an internationally advanced containerised transportation hub. Port joint ventures also have been established or are being established in Xiamen, Tianjin, Dalian, Yantai and Qingdao. In addition, joint ventures providing port services have been widely established in Chinese ports. The bulk fertiliser filling company at the Tianjin port, for instance, is one of the three-largest bulk fertiliser filling centres in China. Packaging, container repair and general service companies as well as a telecommunications and navigational aids company have been set up in the Qingdao port. Shanghai port has formed a container transportation company and a dangerous articles storage company. Port officials said that the construction of Chinese ports has been accelerated, and handling capacities increased since the introduction of overseas investment in such fields as warehousing, and transportation of grain, cement and mineral ores.
