Dalian Port (PDA), China, has decided to suspend the expansion of two container terminals due to sluggish foreign trade.
Dalian Port's Managing Director Sun Hong told Chinese media that the company's container business had been affected by the international trade slump. The construction of two container berths in Phase II and three berths in Phase III development have thus been suspended.
The terminal currently has an annual production capacity of five million TEU, which is enough to sustain business over the next two years, Mr Sun said. He added that he hoped domestic trade and transit cargo trade, which have steady growth in throughput, would be able to offset the drop in foreign trade cargo. The company's capital expenditure would also be trimmed by about 35 percent.
On the box front, Dalian finds itself in a bitter fight with local rivals, Tianjin and Qingdao. Internationally, Dalian faces the port of Incheon, on the west coast of Korea. It is commonly said that there has been too much container capacity earmarked for northeast Asia.
Tracey Jia
