[photopress:tianjin_1.jpg,full,alignright]In Tianjin, the largest port in north China, Minister of Communications Xu Zuyuan said the handling capacity of Chinese ports will grow 18 percent to 5.5 billion tons by the end of this year. Ports are expected to handle 94 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit) this year, up 24 percent over 2005.
The minister said that by the end of this year China will have invested RMB60 billion in 166 new port projects. When these projects are all completed China’s seaport handling capacity will be increased by 548 million tons. That will take it up to 3.44 billion tons.
He said that over the next five years, China will increase investment in infrastructure construction of waterway transportation. The construction will focus on building specialized ports for handling coal, oil, ore and container in inland waterway transportation.
Minister of Communications Xu Zuyuan said that by 2010 China will have further upgraded the handling capacity of coastal harbors by 2.1 billion tons.
Source: Xinhua