Dalian Port, Rising Star as International Shipping Center in Northeast Asia

Dalian Port is located at the central point of West Pacific, center of the arising Northeast Asian economic circle, the gateway for this region to the Pacific and the rest of the world.
She is one of most ideal port to transport cargos to the Middle East, South Asia, North America and Europe with 75 international container routes established covering all major ports of the world. This time Shippingchina.com has the honor to take the interview with Mr. Sun Hong, President of Dalian Port, to take a view at the famous international shipping center in the Northeast Asia’s Economic circle.

J: Thank you to join DIALOGUE. Dalian is renowned, in much of the degree, as a port city in the modern world. That means your excellent port industry operation lays the solid base of the city in a great scale. Would you please make a general introduction about Dalian Port?
Mr. Sun Hong: Dalian Port is established on 1899 and now it is a state-owned enterprise with a registered capital of RMB4 billion. Covering a water area of 346 km2 and a land area of nearly 37 km2, she obtains warehouses of 300,000 m2, stacking yards of 1.8 million km2 and operates 84 specialized modern berths for containers, crude oil, product oils, grains, coal bulk minerals, chemical products and passenger/cargo roll/roll transportation, among which 52 berths are over 10,000 dwt. In 2007, Dalian Port handled a cargo volume of 165 million tons and 3.81 million TEU containers.

J: Thank you for your accurate explanation on the general condition of Dalian Port. Among the world famous competitors, what are the advantages of your port?
Mr. Sun Hong: We have advantages on the following four parts: First of all, the geographic element helps a lot. Located in the center of the Northeast Asian economic region and the junction of China’s Northeast and Pan-Bohai economic zones, we are one of the North China’s nearest ports to the main Pacific trading route.
Secondly, we enjoy the excellent natural deepwater coastlines and complete port infrastructure. The reserved 371 km coastline and the average depth of -18m are ideal for construct large, modern and dedicated berths. Besides the existing great berths, the 400,000 dwt crude oil terminal is expected to be put into operation in 2009 which will be able to receive ULCC super tankers.
Thirdly, Dalian has complete and well-developed distribution system including railway, road and Pan-Bohai feeder network, which includes the Harbin/Shenyang-Dalian railway, Dandong-Dalian motorway, special passenger line and Northeast China east border rail channel. These run through the hinterland, connect with Shandong Peninsula and Southeast China, and face Northeast Asia.
Last, special preferential policies are formulated by both central and local government to support the construction. For example, on Aug. 31, 2006, the State Council approved the establishment of Dalian Dayaowan Free Trade Port Area with a planned area of 6.88 km2.

J: Thank you for your explanation. Now in face of the world economy crisis, how is its influence on your port and what is your port’s action on this crisis?
Mr. Sun Hong: Triggered by the subprime mortgage crisis, the world ports and shipping industry are facing several uncertainties, so the good development momentum in the Northeast Asian economic region becomes an important driving force to the growth of ports and shipping. The share of Northeast Asia in the world economic aggregate has exceeded 20% at present and it is expected to increase 25%-30% by 2020.
Dalian Port just lies at the center of this economic area and also the gateway to Northeast China’s three provinces where Dalian Port handles 70% maritime cargoes and 90% of foreign trade containers. According to the implementation of China’s strategy of revitalizing the Northeast old industrial base, enhancing its function of radiation and role of pulling, and attracting more fund, information and logistics streams to Dalian as the distribution center will realize economic interaction between port and hinterland and upgrade Northeast China’s competitiveness in the Northeast Asian economic circle and even in the world economy.

J: The position of Dalian Port in the Asian economy is really encouraging. Then what are the developing plans for the next step?
Mr. Sun Hong: Dalian Port Corporation plans to invest more than 56 billion RMB on the following items to accelerate the port’s construction: To build a new 400,000 dwt crude oil terminal and oil products storage in Dagushan Peninsular for the transshipment and bonded storage; To construct 20 70,000 dwt to 100.000 dwt container berths in the north bank of Dayao Bay successively; To build 7 10,000-50,000 dwt general cargo berths in Dalian Bay Terminal; To build 2 new 50,000 dwt multi-purpose roll-on and roll-off transportation centre for Pan Bohai Region; To speed up the construction of grain transshipment and trade center; To build up a 300,000 dwt oil terminal, a 300,000 dwt ore terminal, three 70,000-100,000dwt container berths and three 30,000-50,000dwt general cargo berths in Changxin Island.
Besides the above we will continuously expand port city development area by speeding up integration of port and land area, and accelerate the construction of inland and water logistics network to create a logistic cost hollow. We also will promote the port combination and implement the coordination development of the region. For instance the Dalian Port has become the 2nd largest holder of Jinzhou Port, which makes a good beginning of the integration program. According to the general planning, by the year of 2010, the total handling capacity of Dalian Port will reach 3 billion tons and container capacity will reach 10 million TEU. By the year of 2020, both figures will reach 5 billion tons and 20 million TEU.  
We Dalian Port Authority sincere invite friends in shipping and port fields to join us in the process of developing Dalian Port into the International Shipping Center in Northeast Asia and share the golden chances in the Northeast Economy Development. Thank you!

J: We all wish Dalian Port a glorious future. Thank you for your participation in DIALOGUE.

Journalist: Betty Chen