Shandong seaports volume to surpass 11 million TEU in 2007

CONTAINER throughput of the coastal ports of Shandong is expected to surpass 11 million TEU in 2007, making Shandong the third ranking province in China, Xinhua reported.

Total throughput of the Shandong seaports is expected to reach 550 million tons, which will be the fourth largest among the provinces in terms of overall tonnage, the report said.

Shandong has invested CNY20 billion (US$2.70 billion) in 104 port projects in the last three years and 35 of them have been completed, the report said.

Currently there are 328 berths in Shandong, including 142 deep water berths, which account for 43.3 per cent in the total number of berths, the report said.

Shandong will continue to speed up construction of port infrastructure to improve port capacity and the share of deep water berths in total berths will come to more than 50 per cent by the year 2010, the report said.

In a bid to improve port services, Shandong will take two or three years to set up four shipping service centres in Qingdao, Rizhao, Yantai and Weihai to provide "one-stop" customs clearance services, the report added.