China port capacity to reach eight billion tonnes in 2010

China's port handling capacity will increase by more than a third from levels at the end of last year to reach 8 billion tonnes by 2010, the China Securities Journal on Wednesday quoted a senior industry official as saying.
Qian Yongchang, head of the China Communications and Transportation association, said national capacity would be the equivalent of 170 million standard containers - usually twenty-foot equivalents (TEU).
At the end of 2006, national handling capacity was 5.57 billion tonnes, the report said. The country's booming ports have faced persistent bottlenecks but there are now fears overzealous expansion could lead to excess capacity and discourage foreign investors worried about returns on their money. Shanghai is already the world's largest cargo port and second-biggest container port, and China has 12 ports with annual handling capacity of more than 100 million tonnes, the report said.