China is considering building another container terminal along its wealthy east coast partly with foreign investment, which could help alleviate nation-wide transport bottlenecks that have become an economic drag. Prosperous Zhejiang province is studying a container terminal in Jiaxing as part of its port and infrastructure expansion plans, an official with the Zhejiang Province Development and Reform Commission told Reuters on Tuesday. Jiaxing sits between the wealthy cities of Shanghai and Hangzhou, across a bay from Ningbo, a deep natural port.
Ningbo plans to spend $1.9 billion by 2010 to increase its deepwater berths to 30 from 20.
Asian tycoon Li Ka-shing's Hutchison Whampoa, shipper Orient Overseas (International) Ltd (OOIL) - controlled by the family of former Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee-hwa - and Taiwan's Evergreen Marine Corp are among the foreign investors stumping up part of the cash.
"As part of the development of the Ningbo port, we will consider expanding nearby ports like Zhoushan and Taizhou, and we are studying a container terminal for Jiaxing," Wang Rongrong, associate director of the Commission's economic and trade bureau, told Reuters on the sidelines of a logistics seminar.
China's ports are racing to remove infrastructure bottlenecks in the world's third-biggest trading nation. Berthing delays of 20 to 30 days in some northern ports have impeded imports of iron ore and other raw materials needed to fuel an economy that expanded 9.5 percent in 2004.
The Jiaxing project still needs central government approval, Wang said, declining to comment on the size, cost or timeframe for completing the project.
"That's between the port and the investors," she said.
Zhejiang, a base for exporters, is co-ordinating with neighbouring Shanghai and Jiangsu Province on road and water transport, logistics and customs issues, Wang added.
"We have to break down unreasonable parochialism in order to develop," she said at the Yangtze River Delta Logistics conference in Shanghai.
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