China plans to build up two major port clusters in the south of the country to help fuel the country's booming economy and feed its huge energy needs, the official China Daily reported on Monday.
Details of the upgrades, one in coastal Fujian province and the second spanning the export hub of Guangdong, neighbouring Guangxi and the island province of Hainan, were outlined in an interview with Communications Minister Li Shenglin.
Designed to support Beijing's five-year plan for China's development through 2010, they would supplement existing port clusters around Tianjin, Shenzhen and Shanghai, the report said. It did not give a detailed time-frame or capacity for the new centres.
Li forecast that China's ocean cargo handling capacity would rise from 3.8 billion tonnes in 2005 to 5 billion tonnes in 2010, and throughput of twenty-foot equivalent (TEU) units would hit 130 million by the same year, from 74.41 million last year.
The Fujian port group would centre around Xiamen, with Zhangzhou receiving crude oil and gas imports while others, including Quanzhou and Putian, mainly handling containers.
Further south, Guangdong's Zhanjiang and Guangxi's Fangcheng ports would be among those designated to handle mineral imports and, together with Hainan's Haikou, would deal with containers.
Zhanjiang and Haikou would also download and store oil and gas, the newspaper said.
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