China's two deep-water ports,
Ningbo Port and
Zhoushan Port in the east Zhejiang Province, officially merged into one on Tuesday in a bid to forge the third biggest port in the world.
The new port will be named "Ningbo-Zhoushan Port" and start formal operation on Jan. 1 of 2006, according to Wang Yongming, vice governor of Zhejiang province.
"The ports integration in Zhejiang will accelerate China's endeavor of building into a strong country in the field of sea shipping," said Xu Zuyuan, vice minister of communications.
According to statistics from the provincial ports and shipping bureau, the cargo handling capacity of
Ningbo Port is expected to exceed 270 million tons in 2005, ranking second in China, and
Zhoushan Port is expected to handle over 80 million tons of cargo.
However, the two ports, though located in the same sea area and sharing a navigation channel, have been operated under different administrations, which has resulted in separation of planning and greatly undermined their competitiveness.
It is estimated that over 100 billion yuan (about 12.6 billion US dollars) will be injected into the project, which is expected to produce the third largest port in the world by 2010.
Currently, the biggest three ports in the world are Shanghai, Singapore and Rotterdam.
Ningbo-Zhoushan Port is located on the converging point of China's eastern coastline and the mouth of the Yangtze River. There were 591 berths as of the end of 2004, of which, 53 are over 10,000 tons.
After completion, the new port will be an integral part of the
Shanghai International Shipping Center, as well as an important logistic and industrial base, said Lu Zushan, governor of Zhejiang Province.
According to Xu, the cargo and container handling capacity of China have both been listed as the top in the world for three years. In 2005, 10 Chinese ports were registered as world-class, with handling capacity over 100 million tons.
The latest statistics show that China's ports is expected to handle 5 billion tons of cargo in 2005, 19.9 percent higher than that of last year, and 75 million TEU containers, up 21.3 percent from the previous year.
