Progress at Yangshan port

Construction of the
Yangshan deepwater port will soon accelerate so that the first phase of the project can be
operational by 2005, reported Shanghai Daily. The port will serve Shanghai but will actually
be located on two islands in neighbouring Zhejiang province.
The first phase will
comprise five berths and a 32km bridge that will link the smaller of the two islands with
Luchaugang. in Shanghai's southeastern Nanhui district. The bridge has so far advanced
3.6km, of which 1.2km is over the sea.
The USSl6bn project received central
government approval in 2002 after six years of lobbying. It has been controversial because
of its high cost and the competitive threat it 'sill pose to Ningbo. the principal port of
Zhejiang.
Shanghai was the world's fourth largest port in 2002. In the first half of
this year it handled 5.22m teu of containers, a year-on-year increase of 36 per
cent.