Jiangsu port to get 20b yuan capacity boost

 (LIANYUNGANG, China) The state parent of Jiangsu Lianyungang Port Co plans to invest 20 billion yuan (S$3.9 billion) by 2010 to add more capacity, as it speeds up its expansion to cash in on a global shipping boom.

Lianyungang Port Group, a mid-sized port operator based in the city of its name, 560 kilometres north of Shanghai, expects to handle 85 million tonnes of bulk cargo this year, with container throughput at two million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units), the group's chairman said on Monday.
'Our container throughput could more than double to over four million TEUs by 2010 and our freight volume will rise to 120 million tonnes,' Yu Xiangyang said on the sidelines of a business forum.

To help fund the expansion, the group's 48.8 per cent-owned unit, Jiangsu Lianyungang Port, which primarily handles coal, coking coal and chemicals, plans to raise more than one billion yuan next year via a share sale, Mr Yu said.

Proceeds will be used to add more bulk cargo berths.

Mr Yu added that Danish shipping and oil group AP Moeller-Maersk and Cosco Group, China's premier shipping group, may also take a 20 per cent stake each in a container venture between Lianyungang Port Group and China Shipping (Group) Co, capable of handling two million TEUs annually.
'Cosco and Maersk had expressed interest in our container unit. The talks are still ongoing,' he said.

Cosco and other potential investors might also participate in Lianyungang Port Group's six billion TEU expansion of its container capacity, which would enable it to handle up to 10 million TEUs by 2020, he added.

'We want to bring in several outside investors for the project, preferably shipping firms, as they could help extend our network.'
China has sunk billions into ports expansion in hopes that its swelling trade could continue to lure the likes of Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa , and Singapore's PSA International.