Two deepwater ports in east China's Zhejiang
Province, Ningbo and Zhoushan, were officially declared by the
provincial vice governor to have been merged on Tuesday in a bid to
create the third biggest port in the world.
The new port will be named "Ningbo-Zhoushan Port"
and start formal operations on January 1, according to Wang
Yongming.
"The ports' integration will accelerate China's
endeavor to become a stronger country in the field of sea
shipping," said Xu Zuyuan, vice minister of communications.
According to the provincial ports and shipping
bureau, the cargo handling capacity of Ningbo Port is expected to
exceed 270 million tons in 2005, ranking second in China, and
Zhoushan Port is expected to handle over 80 million tons of
cargo.
Currently, though they are located in the same sea
area and share a navigation channel, they are separately
administered, which Xinhua News Agency today said had greatly
undermined their competitiveness.
It is estimated that over 100 billion yuan (US$12.6
billion) will be injected into the merger, which is expected to
produce the third largest port in the world by 2010.
Currently, the biggest three ports are Shanghai,
Singapore and Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
There were 591 berths in the two ports at the end
of 2004, of which 53 were for over 10,000 tons.
After completion, the new port will be an integral
part of the Shanghai International Shipping Center, as well as an
important logistic and industrial base, said Lu Zushan, Zhejiang's
governor.
According to Xu, the cargo and container handling
capacity of China have both been listed as top in the world for
three years. In 2005, 10 Chinese ports were registered as
world-class, with handling capacity over 100 million tons.
China's ports are expected to handle 5 billion tons
of cargo in 2005, 19.9 percent higher than that of last year, and
75 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit, roughly 39 cubic
meters) containers, up 21.3 percent on the previous year.
(Xinhua News Agency December 21, 2005)