Port builds on its strengths

A huge foreign oil tanker approaches the Longkou Port.

A leading coal port

Longkou Port is making great efforts to develop the coal shipping business.

In July 2004, the port teamed up with the State Investment and Development Corporation and Nanshan Group in Longkou to establish a joint venture - Guotou Longkou Westport Development Ltd - aimed at developing a deep-water port at Qimu Island to handle coal and goods like alumina, bauxite, ore and bulk cargo. The port is expected to become operational this year.

In 2005, the National Development and Reform Commission planned to establish Longkou as a new coal shipping port, targeting the handling capacity of 50 million tons of coal annually by 2010 and 70-80 million tons by 2020.

Four specialized coal berths, each with a handling capacity of more than 100,000 tons, will be built and become operational midway through the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010). Four more 100,000-ton-class berths will be built at the end of the period.

According to the plan, 16 specialized coal berths, ranging from 5,000-ton class to 150,000-ton class, will be built in the future.

Petrochemicals shipment

Longkou Port is also planning to build itself into one of the important trans-shipment ports for petrochemical materials in the Bohai Bay region.

Longkou Bingang Liquid Chemical Dock Ltd, a joint venture invested by Longkou Port, Bingang Petrochemical Group and Guangzhou Huaxingtai Group, is a company dealing with the loading, unloading, storage and transfer of oil, petroleum products and liquid chemicals.

The petrochemicals zone, which covers 533,000 sq m over a 2,000-m coastline, possesses a 50,000-ton-class liquid chemicals berth and a 16,000-ton-class perilous cargo berth.

According to the port's development scheme, two more 50,000-ton-class petrochemical berths will be built during the 11th Five Year Plan, with the zone's annual throughput reaching 10 million tons by 2010.

Ore trans-shipment

With the aim of building an important trans-shipment port for ore on the south coast of Bohai Bay, Longkou Port collaborated with Zibo Nanjinzhao Group and Dongping Minerals (Canada) Co Ltd to establish its first foreign joint venture project, mainly dealing with the loading, unloading, storage and shipping of ore, aluminum, billet, pig iron and nonmetals. When the first 100,000-ton-class ore berth becomes functional, the venture will handle 5 million tons of ore by the end of this year.

Grain transportation

Longkou Port is already an important trans-shipment port in Shandong Province. Equipped with a 50,000-ton-class specialized grain berth, the port handled 1 million tons of grain last year.

With the completion of the first-phase project for storing and transferring bulk grain, the port will reach a designed storage capacity of 100,000 tons and handling capacity of 600 tons per hour.

After the completion of the second phase, the storage and shipment of bulk grain will be fully automated, by which the annual capacity will rise to 2 million tons.

Container service

Longkou Port is now equipped with a comprehensive management system, and complete and state-of-the-art facilities, and is able to offer highly efficient and overall services.

It berths more than 10 domestic and international container shipping lines with 15 regular liners per week. In addition, it has two 16,000-ton-class specialized container berths with designed handling capacity of 200,000 TEUs, and another two 35,000-ton-class berths will be built this year with the aim of reaching a handling capacity of 500,000 TEUs annually.

(China Daily 08/09/2007 page19)