Shanghai Daily news

Shanghai became the world's second-largest port in terms of freight volume last year as booming exports saw local ports handle19.8 percent more cargo than they did during 2003.
The city, which is vying to become one of Asia's top shipping hubs, surpassed Rotterdam in Holland, the previous No. 2 port in the world, but still handled slightly less cargo than ports in Singapore.
Shanghai ports handled 379 million tons of freight last year, an increase of 19.8 percent from a year earlier and 2.3 percent less than Singapore, which handled 388 million tons of cargo in 2004.
"The booming shipping business is mainly driven by the expanding trade in Shanghai and neighboring cities," said an analyst surnamed Zhu who works for a local securities firm.
"I believe more shipping lines will pick up or drop off cargo in Shanghai and then deliver it to other sites in Asia when the Yangshan Deep Water Port is completed," said Zhu.
Shanghai is currently building the big deep water port on an island just outside the city to cater to exploding demand in the region.
The port is scheduled to start service by the year's end to ease pressure on existing local ports, which are already running at full capacity.
The city also maintained its place among the top three container ports in the world by handling 14.55 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit) of containers, leaving it behind Hong Kong and Singapore.
Shanghai claimed third place by container volume in 2003 when it overtook Busan in South Korea.
Strong exports and an expanding economy in Shanghai have helped fuel growth in the shipping business.
The city exported goods worth US$73.52 billion last year, a rise of more than 50 percent year on year, according to the Shanghai Statistics Bureau, which didn't offer information on imports.
Total trading through local customs, including both imports and exports from Shanghai and other cities, surged by 40.4 percent from a year earlier to hit US$282.57 billion.
"Foreign trade is always expanding quickly in Shanghai, especially after the city dealt with problems hampering trade growth last year like paying rebates to exporters, which had long been delayed, to spur their confidence," said Li Mingliang, an analyst with Haitong Securities Co.
Li, however, said uncertainties may slow the growth rate this year.
"An increase in exports may be slower as the calculation base is already very high. More factors to count in include the fluctuation in oil prices, which makes it hard to predict global demand," Li noted.
Fixed investment, another engine driving the economy, rose by 25.8 percent from a year earlier to hit 308.4 billion yuan in 2004.
The city's unemployment rate declined last year, the first time in the past 10 years, according to the statistical bureau.
This was accompanied by a notable narrowing-down in income growth gap for urban and rural dwellers in Shanghai.
Pan jianxin, head of the bureau, said last year Shanghai created 608,000 jobs.
The registered unemployment rate stood at 4.5 percent, down 0.4 percentage points from the previous year.
A sample survey conducted by the bureau found urbanites in Shanghai had a per-capita disposable income of 16,683 yuan last year, up 12.2 percent over 2003, while the city's rural dwellers had 7,337 yuan, up 10.2 percent.
Sales of new apartments in Shanghai expanded by 38.9 percent to 34.88 million square meters last year. The floor area of vacant apartments dropped by 31.2 percent to 3.59 million square meters.