China Business

Jan 4, 2006

New joint venture for Yangshan harbor project

SHANGHAI - Five Chinese and foreign port and shipping operators have signed a joint venture agreement to construct and operate the second phase of the Yangshan harbor project near Shanghai.

Yangshan was planned as a long-term solution to one of the Shanghai port's biggest problems: the depth of the Yangtze River estuary is only seven meters, so third- and fourth-generation container ships can only come in and out at high tide, and the water depth of the Huangpu River is also only seven to eight meters and is too narrow for large container ships to maneuver and turn freely. The Yangshan harbor will offer deeper water and

plentiful room for even the biggest next-generation container vessels.

The five partners who signed the deal last month are Hutchison Whampoa and AP Moller Maersk, which will each hold a 32% interest in the project, Shanghai International Port Service (Group) Co Ltd, which will take a 16% stake, and COSCO Group and China Shipping Group, which will respectively take 10% stakes. However, these equity proportions have yet to be approved by the relevant authorities.

The second phase of the Yangshan deep water harbor area will have a total terminal coastline of 1,400 meters, and create four 70,000 deadweight ton (dwt) container berths, including those for handling super-large container vessels of more than 100,000 dwt. Its designed annual handling capacity is 2.1 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).

(Asia Pulse/XIC)

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