Qingdao Port is becoming an international shipping center for northeastern Asia with the official launch of its Qianwan Container Terminal Co Ltd on Friday.  

The Qianwan container dock is one of the largest in the world, with 10 deepwater berths for container vessels along the 3,400 meter-long coastline. It is also capable of receiving huge container vessels carrying 10,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers, with an annual handling capacity exceeding 6.5 million TEUs.

On July 21, the Qingdao Port (Group) Co Ltd signed a contract in Beijing with the A.P. Moller Maersk Group of Denmark, P&O of Britain, and the China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company (COSCO), investing US$887 million jointly to regroup its Qianwan container dock into the largest in China. The four companies are holding shares of 31, 20, 29 and 20 per cent respectively.

This is the first time the three world-leading shipping companies have funded the same port project, which is also their largest dock project in Asia.

Alispair Baillie, chief operating officer of the P&O China Company, said he is very confident of the great potential of the Qingdao Port.

"The port of Qingdao will turn itself into northern China's shipping center and a hub for international containers in Northeast Asia," said the COO.

Situated on a peninsula along the Yellow Sea in East China's Shandong Province, Qingdao is the second-largest foreign trade port and the third-largest domestic container port in China.

Last year the port handled a total of 140 million tons of cargo, with 4.2 million TEUs, both up by more than 30 percent from 2002.

Gao Weijie, executive vice-president of COSCO, said the new project will make it easier and more convenient for some western Chinese cities like Lanzhou, Xi'an and Chengdu to conduct foreign trade through the port.

More new international shipping lines will be launched this year from Qingdao, he added.

Recently, the Maersk Group opened a direct shipping line from Europe to Qingdao Port, which is the shortest sea route between China and Europe, according to sources with Maersk.

(China Daily January 10, 2004)