Shanghai Daily news

Last year Shanghai overtook Rotterdam to become the world's second-largest port in terms of cargo volume behind Singapore.
Shanghai handled 382 million tons of cargo in 2004.
The city also retained its place as the world's third-biggest container port after Hong Kong and Singapore by moving more than 14.5 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units).
Rising cargo shipments coming through the port are obviously buoyed by Shanghai's flourishing foreign trade, as well as that in neighboring cities in the Yangtze River Delta, which are home to numerous manufacturing companies.
"The explosion of trade is a major driving force behind the growth as a large number of manufacturers in Shanghai and nearby cities export their freight via the local port," said a local industry analyst.
Shanghai's foreign trade last year was valued at more than US$280 billion, representing year-on-year growth of 40 percent.
The yangtze River Delta region has become China's base for high-tech industries such as telecommunications, microelectronics and software, significantly boosting imports and exports through the port.
While these high-tech industries fueled growth last year, the expiration of textile quotas, which became effective on January 1 this year is expected to further propel growth in shipments of textiles.
"Although lifting the quota may not have an immediate effect on textile exports, the move is expected to boost the sector in the long term," the analyst said.
Positioned at the mouth of the Yangtze River, Shanghai also functions as a gateway between Chinese cities along on the banks of the Yangtze and the rest of the world.
Shanghai hopes to narrow the gap between Hong Kong and Singapore in the field of container throughput this year.
The city expects 17 to 17.5 million TEUs in 2005, according to an official with Shanghai International Port (Group) Co Ltd, the city's container terminals operator.
"This year, a rise in the volume of containers will mainly come from the Shanghai Waigaoqiao Phase V Wharf," he said.
The terminal was expected to contribute 3 million TEUs to the city.
The new wharf is equipped with four deep-water container berths, and was built and put into trial operation around the end of last year.
In the first two months of this year, the city has shown strong signs of development.
The monthly container throughput at Shanghai Port reached a record high in January, when the city handled 1.42 million TEUs, jumping 41 percent in a year-on-year comparison with January 2004.
Despite the weeklong Spring Festival holiday falling in February this year, Shanghai still saw more than 1.11 million TEUs, rising 17.9 percent year on year.
But the industry analyst said the city now urgently needs more capacity to handle continuously growing trade as existing terminals are nearly operating at full capacity.
"Otherwise it may lose freight to neighboring ports in Asia," the analyst said.
The shanghai government is stepping up efforts to transform the city into an international shipping hub in northeast Asia.
The latest move to this end is the development of the Yangshan Deep Water Port, a mega project under construction on two islands near the city.
The local government hopes this will help attract larger ships than the existing ports because of its deeper waterways.
The first phase of the new deep-water container port comprising five berths will be completed by the end of next year and should help with the rising shipping demand given its annual capacity of more than 3 million TEUs.
Another four berths for the second phase will be completed by the end of 2006, increasing the annual capacity to 5.5 million TEUs.
The port is on an island 27 kilometers from Shanghai, where water depth of more than 15 meters will enable handling of large container vessels.
The container terminal will eventually have a capacity to handle more than 20 million TEUs every year.
Major domestic shipping companies such as COSCO and China Shipping are considering converting their roles as shipping companies into logistics services operators.
Last year, China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company, the country's biggest shipping line, signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Sichuan Changhong Electric Co Ltd, a major domestic TV set producer.
Under the agreement, COSCO will cooperate with the TV maker in ocean shipping, logistics and information service about the global market in addition to providing the bulk of its domestic transport of the home appliances it produces.