The port of Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province, is seeking co-operation with more international shipping giants to boost its overseas throughput as it continues to expand its capacity to harbour container vessels.

"The more international lines a shipping company can bring here, the greater its involvement in the operation of the port," said Huang Guosheng, director-general of Guangzhou Port Authority.

International companies could gain a share in the operation of the port by bringing significant shipping lines, Huang said.

International shipping giant Maersk acquired a 20 per cent stake in the second phase of container berths at the Nansha port area in Guangzhou and started an Italy-Nansha line in April this year.

A number of other international shipping giants have shown interest in Nansha, Huang said.

The Guangzhou port currently accommodates mainly bulk goods and domestic container lines.

But it's building more container berths and deepening waterways at Nansha to take larger international vessels as part of the ongoing national five-year plan.

The port of Guangzhou handled 250.36 million tons of goods last year, 16.3 per cent more than the previous year, making it the third-biggest Chinese port and the fifth worldwide, Huang said.

This includes 4.68 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers, up 41.8 per cent year-on-year.

The Nansha port area has become a new growth area of the Guangzhou port, Huang said.

The four container berths at Nansha, completed in 2004 and each capable of harbouring 50,000-ton vessels, handled 1.08 million TEUs last year and are expected to handle more than 2 million TEUs this year. The China Shipping Group has acquired a 40 per cent share in the operation of the berths.

Six such berths are being built in the second-phase development with an investment of 5 billion yuan (US$616.52 million) and are scheduled to start operation in September next year. Hong Kong-registered COSCO Pacific and Maersk have acquired a 44 per cent and 20 per cent stake in these berths respectively.

The 60-kilometre waterway from Nansha to the anchorage ground at the mouth of the Pearl River will be capable of housing vessels of up to 200,000 tons by 2010.

The major draws of Nansha include proximity to the sources of goods and the relatively low container-handling cost, Huang explained.

Nansha is close to a number of export-oriented manufacturing areas, especially those located to the west of the Pearl River, including Nanhai and Shunde.

More roads and railways are being built to link the west of the Pearl River to the east, which will facilitate the flow of goods.

This confidence in the source of goods is also based on Guangdong targeting an annual economic growth of 9 per cent between this year and 2010, said Chen Hongxian, chairman of the Guangzhou Port Group Co.

The company is the major operator of the port of Guangzhou and accounts for two-thirds of the business there.

Massive industrial projects adjacent to the port are also thriving in Nansha, as well as some other parts of Guangzhou, including a car-making plant and Toyota's export-oriented car engine plant, an iron and steel project, a major shipbuilding base and an anticipated sizeable refinery.

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