China’s ports ride wave brought by boost in foreign trade

To many international port operators, investing in China's port facilities is like tapping into an inexhaustible money-making machine.

When ports in other parts of the world have reached their saturation point, those in China are handling over 4 billion tons of throughput a year, maintaining a double-digit growth rate annually. This has been mainly due to the country's blistering growth in foreign trade. China's trade volume exceeded $2 trillion last year. Exports volume grew 25.7 percent from a year earlier to reach $1.22 trillion while imports increased 20.8 percent year-on-year to $955.8 billion. The country has emerged as the world's third largest trading power and the world's fourth largest economy with a GDP of 24.66 trillion yuan ($3.60 trillion) last year. Driven by its strong export growth and huge domestic market demand, China is expected to become the world's second largest economy, second only after the United States in 2011, according to the International Monetary Fund. To maintain a smooth flow of imports and exports, the government has set a target of increasing China's port throughput volume by at least 80 percent during the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10). The country will construct 164 new deep water berths and 69 container berths during the period. China's container throughput volume is expected to surge 70 percent to reach 170 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) by 2010. Chinese port operators are vying to construct new berths and upgrade old ones to remain competitive. Shanghai appears to be leading the way. The city could overtake Singapore as the world's largest container port with its throughput volume expected to grow 15 percent this year.
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