Hebei Port Group, the world's largest bulk cargo port company in terms of throughput, was established Wednesday in north China's Hebei province.

The state-owned group is a combination of Qinhuangdao, Caofeidian and Huangye ports in Hebei. The bulk cargo throughput of these ports reached 281 million tonnes in 2008, the largest volume in the world, said Xu Zuyuan, Vice Minister of Transport at the inauguration ceremony

The group has 18 billion yuan (about 2.6 billion U.S. dollars) worth of assets with 17,000 employees.

The establishment of the group is planned and coordinated by the provincial government. It aims to optimize the cooperation between the ports within Hebei, said the province's State-own Assets Supervision & Administration Commission.

It is also an effort to diversify the goods being transported, mostly coal at the moment, and promote the development of container-shipping.

The group is to enhance the competitiveness of the water transport industry in Hebei, making the competition of over 40 ports in the Bohai rim even keener, said Xu.

Bohai sea boarders north-eastern China's Hebei, Shandong, Liaoning provinces and Tianjing municipality. The Bohai rim includes Beijing and other large cities such as Shenyang, Dalian, Taiyuan and Qingdao.

"A Report on the Economic Development of Bohai Rim", released in 2008, said that the region would account for 30% of China's GDP by 2010.

(Xinhua News Agency July 9, 2009)