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China Opens Military Port to International Shipping
China opened one of its leading military ports, Huludao, in northeastern China's Liaoning Province Wednesday to international commercial shipping.
Located on the Bohai Rim, Huludao is an important port for the Chinese navy.
With the opening of the port, domestic freighters will be able to engage in foreign trade by transporting cargo to any foreign country in the world. Prior to the port opening, for the past 20 years, it was restricted to domestic shipping.
"Introducing international shipping to Huludao port indicates that China always considers economic development as a first priority, and ports with military facilities can be partly put into civil use to spur regional economies," said Chen Zhengcai, a navigation official with the Ministry of Communications. The State Council has given the green light for opening of the port. A customs office, a border control office, and the administrative body for entry-exit inspections and quarantine has been established.
"Huludao port cannot match other ports in cargo-handling capacity, but its opening is an indication that China will continue to open its ports to the world," Zhang said.
Huludao port was first approved for opening in 1984 to domestic commercial shipping lines, and has since mainly handled crude oil, oil products, grain and building materials destined for the nation 's leading commercial ports in Shanghai and Fujian Province in east China and Guangdong Province in south China.
Economists said that the opening of the Huludao port to international shipping use could greatly boost the economy in the western part of Liaoning, and it may also facilitate the transportation of commodities, grain in particular, from the three northeastern provinces and east parts of Inner Mongolia. "If the Huludao port could be merged with nearby Jinzhou Port, whose current handling capacity stands at between six and seven million tons, shipping would be greatly enhanced and the economy around the Bohai Rim would receive a strong boost," said Ren Hong, a port planning official with the State Development Planning Commission.
Huludao has been a military port since 1908. It was later expanded in 1929 by General Zhang Xueliang. After Japanese invasion into northeast China in 1931, it was used by the Japanese army as a transportation base.
The ice-free port now has an annual commercial handling capacity of one million tons. The city government is still moving to expand it, with investment totaling 280 million yuan earmarked for the first phase. One dock, with a handling capacity of 10,000 tons, has already been completed, while two others --of 20,000 dwt and 35,000 dwt capacity, respectively, are now under construction. Another six docks will be built under the second- phase expansion project, at a cost of one billion yuan.
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