China's bulk shipping volume is expected to rise almost 50% to 6.1 billion tons in the next five years from four billion tons last year, state media reported May 24. The forecast was made by Minister of Communications Zhang Chunxian at a ports conference in Shanghai.
Shanghai overtook Rotterdam of the Netherlands last year as the world's second-largest port behind Singapore. It is also the world's third-largest container terminal port behind Hong Kong and Singapore.
China is currently building its biggest port project, the 100 billion yuan ($12 billion) Yangshan Deepwater Port on an island near Shanghai. Other major coastal cities -- including Ningbo, Tianjin, Qingdao and Dalian -- have all aggressively expanded their ports in recent years.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005
