SHANGHAI International Port (Group) Co plans to join in a 2.4-billion-yuan (US$343.7-million) project in Chongqing as part of the municipality's 11th Five-Year Plan for port construction.
The company and the Chongqing government have signed an agreement to jointly build 13 ship berths that can each handle 3,000 tons of goods, SIPG told the Shanghai Stock Exchange yesterday. The company operates the world's second-busiest container port in Shanghai.
The project, along a 2,300-meter stretch of the Yangtze River, is still awaiting government approval and the two sides will seek other investors, the statement said.
The construction of 12 multi-purpose berths and a roll-on roll-off terminal will further extend Shanghai Port's control along the Yangtze River, the main waterway in central China, after its investments in Jiujiang and Wuhan.
China aims to make greater use of internal waterways for cargo shipments to cut pollution and transport costs.
The port operator earned 3.64 billion yuan, or 0.17 yuan per share in 2007, rising 23 percent from a year earlier on rising container business.
Its container throughput grew 20.4 percent to 26.15 million 20-foot equivalent units in 2007 and total cargo volume rose 16.5 percent to 353 million tons.
SIPG aims to reach container traffic of 30 million TEUs and total cargo handling of 385 million tons this year. Still, SIPG warned of increasing challenges this year with the economic slowdown and tightened national monetary policy.