Now that development of Liaoning province has been elevated to a State-level priority, the region's ports are speeding up construction to meet an expected increase in transportation needs.

There are six ports in the coastal area of Liaoning province: Dalian, Yingkou, Dandong, Jinzhou, Panjin and Huludao.

Dalian and Yingkou ports are among the top 10 ports in China.

"Because the inland regions adjacent to the ports overlap, I think the different ports should define their positions based on their unique competitive advantages to better serve the economic development of the province," said Li Song, vice-president of Yingkou Port Liability Co Ltd.

Yingkou and Dalian ports top the priority list for port development in the province.

Li said his Shanghai-based company plans to promote Yingkou Port as providing the closest access to the sea for cities in the central regions of Liaoning province.

Construction spending

Yingkou Port has 60 berths. In 2008, the port handled 150 million tons of cargo and 2.05 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers.

Through 2010, Yingkou Port plans to invest 14 billion yuan in construction.

Three billion yuan of that amount will be spent this year to allow the port to handle 170 million tons of cargo and 2.4 million TEUs of containers through the end of 2009.

During the first four months of this year, the amount of cargo handled in the port increased by 8.8 percent to 57.29 million tons, while container TEUs increased by 9.8 percent, Li said.

"The major reason for the increase is the higher domestic traffic handled in our port. Domestic trade accounts for 80 percent of the total, which is less affected by the global financial crisis," Li said.

A major task for Yingkou Port in 2009 is to further expand domestic trade. Next it will open new routes from Yingkou to Quanzhou and Wenzhou.

Liu Tiantian, an officer at Jinzhou Port Co Ltd, said competition for cargo among the ports in Liaoning province is inevitable and necessary.

"Competition is needed to develop our ports, but we should avoid vicious competition," Liu said.

"Both managers and employees of Jinzhou Port now maintain good communications with other ports," he said."

Jinzhou Port is China's 19th largest port, and in 2008 it handled 47.23 million tons of cargo and 650,000 TEUs of containers.

However, due to the financial crisis, cargo handled during the first four months of this year decreased by about 10 percent to 10 million tons.

"Oil products handled during the first three months of this year only equal the quantity we handled in a single month last year," Liu said.

The Shanghai-listed company adjusted its target in 2009 to 43 million tons of cargo and 600,000 TEUs of containers - lower than the quantity handled in 2008.

Coal shipments

"Coal was a bright spot for our port in 2008. Therefore, our major market this year will be eastern Inner Mongolia, which is an important coal production base in China," Liu said.

At present, two berths for container ships are under construction at Jinzhou Port.

"We'll focus on infrastructure construction this year to benefit from the country's stimulus package, and we'll also try to apply for financial support from the government," he said.

Dandong Port is also speeding up infrastructure construction this year, according to Zhang Hongjiang, a port manager.

The port this year plans to invest 3 billion yuan to build 10 new berths. By comparison, only eight berths were built from 2005 to 2008, Zhang said.

"The handling capacity of our port is likely to reach 60 million tons in 2010, up from 40 million tons in 2008," he said.

From January to April, Dandong Port handled 13.28 million tons of cargo, a 30 percent increase compared to the same period last year. Zhang credited most of that increase to domestic trade.

Dandong Port plans to increase the amount of cargo it handles from 34 million tons in 2008 to 40 million tons this year, Zhang said.

(China Daily 08/03/2009 page6)