PSA keen on China's Nansha terminal

Singapore port operator PSA Corp Ltd said on Thursday it was interested in joining the Nansha container terminal project in China, to strengthen its presence in one of the world's fastest-growing markets.
"The Nansha project is one which we are looking at. We are trying to work it out with authorities," Aaron Mak, chief executive officer at PSA China Pte Ltd said on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Maritime 2004 conference.
The Guangzhou government said last month it will invite overseas investors to participate in the construction and operation of the 2.65 billion yuan (US$320 million) container terminal in Nansha, its new industrial zone.
PSA Corp's Mak would not say whether the firm was looking at an equity stake or an operating role.
The Nansha terminal will have four 50,000-tonne berths operational in September, and another four 100,000-tonne berths will be tendered for construction and operation in March.
PSA already operates four container terminals in China. Mak said last year these terminals handled 3.4 million twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEUs), up sharply from 2002, and volumes for 2004 were growing strongly due to China's rapid growth.
China's container volume has been growing by an average of 30 percent a year in the last five years with 10 million TEUs of new cargo being generated each year.
Singapore's PSA, which runs the world's second-busiest container port after Hong Kong, also has port projects in Belgium, Brunei, India, Italy, Portugal, South Korea and Thailand.
Mak said the PSA wants to expand its Dalian terminal located at the Bohai Rim in northern China, and is looking to increase its presence in the Pearl River Delta area where its Guangzhou terminal is situated.
PSA Corp has already expressed an interest in the multi-billion dollar Yangshan port project in Shanghai.
Buoyed by strong container traffic in 2003, Singapore's state-run PSA is expanding its offshore terminal capacity while confronting mounting competition from neighbouring Malaysia's Port Klang and the Port of Tanjung Pelepas.