Mainland port operator China Merchants Holdings (International) is keen to take advantage of improved cross-strait relations and invest in Kaohsiung, Taiwan's biggest port.
'Kaohsiung is a natural deepwater port and has played an important role in the international transshipment trade,' China Merchants chairman Fu Yuning said yesterday after a trip to Taiwan.
China Merchants' move comes after bigger rival Cosco Pacific announced an interest in investing in the port last Friday.
Mr Fu said particulars of the investment plan would not be ironed out until after the Taiwan government announced regulations relaxing restrictions on mainland firms wishing to invest on the island.
However, he said there were concerns that port handling charges 'should not be too low'.
The island's ports are dominated by shipping companies such as Evergreen and Yang Ming, which consider the harbours an extension of their business rather than as a public facility run by an operator. As a result, port charges were determined in the interests of the shipping lines rather than from the viewpoint of the port operator, said Geoffrey Cheng, a transport analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research.
Meanwhile, Mr Fu said the drop in container throughput at mainland ports had started bottoming out last month, which was a positive sign for the country's beleaguered export sector.