Traditional port injected with new vigor
Automobiles are waiting for transit shipment at Dalian Port. The port has the biggest specialized auto dock in the country, with a 50,000-ton berth and two 10,000-ton berths for roll-on roll-off ships. Yu Haiqing |
Established in 1899, the ice-free port's deep waters and wide harbors are perfect natural conditions for developing the shipping business.
With a widespread transportation network, covering railways, expressways, pipe lines and shipping lines, Dalian Port has become a sea portal to the Bohai Bay rim, offering a convenient connection between the hinterland area of Northeast China and the world.
At present, the port has more than 80 modern specialized berths for containers, crude oil, petroleum products, grain, minerals in bulk, chemicals, and roll-on roll-off ships. Of these, at least 40 berths have a 10,000-ton handling capacity.
Designed as a key port for loading and unloading petroleum products, the port has the biggest bonded warehouse for crude oil in China, with maximum storage capacity reaching 1.2 million cubic meters.
As Dalian Port plans to build new big docks for crude oil, tanker storage capacity of crude oil and petroleum products at the port will be lifted to 9 million and 1 million cubic meters respectively.
One of Dalian's goals is to build the port into a shipping hub with yearly throughput exceeding 80 million tons of petroleum and liquefied chemicals by 2010, according to the city government.
As a container-shipping hub, the port has opened at least 70 shipping lines to the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Japan and the Republic of Korea, with more than 300 liners per month.
Statistics show that more than 90 percent of the container business in Northeast China's foreign trade has been handled by Dalian Port.
Dalian Container Terminal Co Ltd, jointly invested by Dalian Port, Port of Singapore Authorities, and Denmark-based Maersk, has an annual capacity of handling 2.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).
Another joint venture, Dalian Port Container Terminal Co Ltd, plans to build six container berths with an annual capacity of handling 3.5 million TEUs.
Backed by efficient performance in the container business, Dalian Port is not only pivotal to spurring growth of international trade but also plays a key role in facilitating domestic transactions.
Dalian Dagang China Shipping Container Terminal Co Ltd is mainly involved in shipping lines between Dalian and Shanghai in East China and Huangpu in South China's Guangdong Province, routes that link the three main water transportation systems in the country, covering Bohai Bay and the Yangtze and Pearl rivers.
Dalian Port is currently the second biggest container center in China, next to Shanghai Port, and tops Chinese coastal ports in terms of sea-rail through transport.
Its throughput of goods exceeded 200 million tons in 2006, ranking among the top 20 ports in the world.
The figure is expected to reach 250 million tons in 2010, with container handling capacity amounting to 10 million TEUs.
Further, construction of the Dayaowan Bonded Harbor Area is anticipated to sharpen the competitive edge of Dalian Port.
(China Daily 03/13/2007 page20)
