Huangshi plans to restore shipbuilding glory:

The Yangtze port city of Huangshi is attempting to restore its shipbuilding glory by giving the go-ahead to Huangshi Jinzhou Shipyard. The new shipyard, located in Yangxin county, is to be built on a 229,000 sq metre plot of land with a total investment of Rmb500m. Upon completion, it will have an annual capacity to build 10 vessels of up to 20,000 dwt each.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the old Huangshi Shipyard employed more than 1,000 people and specialised in building dredgers, tugs and barges for clients in Hong Kong and Singapore. At the time, it was the second largest shipyard among the 18 located in Hubei province. The old shipyard started its decline in the mid 1990s under the pressure of rising steel prices and a shortage of funding. In December 2000, it was declared bankrupt.

Yangtze shipping index recovers in April:

The decline in the Yangtze’s dry bulk market eased in April, with the Yangtze Dry Index closing at 803.79 on 30 April, according to the Yangtze River Administration under the Ministry of Transport. This represented an increase of 0.17 per cent over the previous month. The index for coal increased by 2.16 per cent to 655.94 compared with March. Shipping prices on the long haul routes from Sichuan and Chongqing to Nanjing and Shanghai rose to Rmb0.026 per ton km.
Imported iron ore levels increased on the low international shipping prices and rising demand for steel products such as rail tracks. But most steel plants are still utilising their stocks and are in no hurry to place iron ore orders with their trading partners, with the result that imports are piling up in ports along the Yangtze’s lower reaches. The index for metal ores declined by 2.93 per cent over the previous month to 832.90.
The index for building materials, however, rose sharply by 17.8 per cent over March to 1249.77 due to the increasing volumes of cargo going into the interior, particularly in support of continuing relief efforts for the Sichuan earthquake.
Among non-metal ores, phosphorite and sodium sulphate from the upper reaches have been in particularly strong demand. Shipping prices for other non-metal ores have been relatively stable with the index rising by 2.54 per cent to 958.46 compared with March.

Renovation work to close section of Shanghai-Hangzhou Expressway:

Transport authorities in Shanghai have announced that from 16 May, the section of the Shanghai-Hangzhou Expressway between Xinzhuang and Xinqiao will be closed for the second phase of a renovation project. This will be the first time Shanghai has ever shut down part of the expressway for renovation.
The renovation of the 18km stretch is designed to increase capacity and will involve road widening, the removal of certain toll stations and the addition of an underground tunnel. First phase work started at the end of last year and the whole project will take 15 months and Rmb2.2bn to complete. The section is scheduled to open again in time for the Shanghai Expo which will start in May 2010.

New agreement on mainland-Taiwan air cargo services:

The official spokesman for the National Office for Taiwan Affairs said on 13 May that representatives from the mainland and Taiwan had signed an agreement in Nanjing recently to increase air traffic between the two sides. Weekly passenger services will more than double from the current 108 flights to 270.
Another six mainland cities will start direct services, bringing the total to 27. These cities include Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan and Chongqing, all situated on the Yangtze trunkline, along with Changsha, Hefei and Nanchang on Yangtze tributaries. Shanghai and Guangzhou have been designated for regular air cargo services and both sides have also agreed to carry cargo on regular passenger services.

Petrol tanker collides with truck in Jiangsu:

On 13 May, a road tanker loaded with 21 tons of petrol collided with a truck on the Feng Guan Expressway near Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, killing the tanker driver and his assistant. China News Agency reported that the Lianyungang Fire Brigade dispatched 22 fire engines with more than a hundred firemen and that the fire took five hours to extinguish. The city’s Emergency Response Office dispatched another tanker to transfer the remaining petrol safely. The cause of the accident is still being investigated.
On the same day elsewhere in Jiangsu province, a leakage in Jiangyin Huangtu New Star Chemical Plant intoxicated students in a secondary school just 50 metres away. The leakage happened around 3pm during the production of Di-tert-butyl dicarbonate, a reagent widely used in organic synthesis. The students inhaled the toxic gas and 32 of them were rushed to the hospital.

Wuhan-Guangzhou line to open in December:

The Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed passenger line will start operating by 20 December 2009, a year ahead of the original plan, according to a revised schedule from the Ministry of Railways. The 967km line from Wuchang Station in Wuhan to Guangzhou New Station in Guangzhou will allow a speed of 350 kph and reduce the journey time between the two cities from the current 11 hours to just four. At least 100 trains each way are scheduled to run daily once services begin, and the total will at least double by 2018. So far, 90 per cent of the project has been completed.
Costing nearly Rmb99bn and started in 2005, this line is part of the 2,230km Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway, which upon completion will reduce the travel time between Beijing and Guangzhou to 10 hours from the current 24 hours. The new high-speed line will run parallel to the existing Beijing-Guangzhou line, which will eventually be used only for cargo.

Nantong port reports strong rise in foreign trade:

According to statistics from the Nantong Maritime Authorities, Nantong recorded a 35.5 per cent year-on-year rise in foreign trade-related throughput in April to 3.02m tons. In the first two months of 2009, foreign trade-related throughput declined in Nantong as it did in most other Chinese ports due to the worldwide economic downturn. It started to rise in March on the back of the many infrastructure projects benefiting from the central government’s stimulus package. Increasing demand for iron ore and other imported metals contributed to a steady increase in Nantong’s throughput. In April, the volume of copper ore concentrates alone hit 200,040 tons, a record for a single month.
Opposite Nantong on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, Taicang terminal reported a 28 per cent year-on-year increase in cargo throughput to 14.15m tons and a 5.6 per cent rise in container throughput of 423,000 teu for the first four months of the year. This makes it one of the best performing ports along the entire navigable length of the Yangtze.

Jiujiang receives special industrial development support:

Jiangxi provincial government recently announced a package of strategic measures designed to speed up Jiujiang’s industrial development. These measures cover infrastructure investment, financing, land allocation and project support. Jiujiang is the only major Yangtze port city in the province.
In addition to a number of highways, top priority infrastructure projects for the city include the Jiujiang Yangtze Bridge and the Jiujiang ring road, both of which will start construction this year. Preparation will begin on a new container terminal called Chengxi and a railway line leading into the terminal. An expansion project to allow the terminal to handle dangerous goods will be approved, as will a project to set up a recycled resources economic zone. Efforts will also be made to speed up the establishment of the Jiujiang customs clearance. The provincial government will support, among other things, the setting up of a shipbuilding industrial zone for medium-sized and small vessels.

Chongqing Fair set to attract record numbers:

The 12th China Chongqing International Investment and Global Sourcing Fair opened on 13 May. A total of 265 multinational and 3,600 domestic enterprises were set to take part in the fair, the highest number since the first fair in 1997.
Li Jianchun, chief of Chongqing Foreign Economic Relations and Trade Commission, said he expected a number of major investment and purchase contracts to be signed in the areas of equipment manufacture, automobiles, urban construction and consumer durables.
China’s leading trade fair, the Guangzhou Fair, concluded last Thursday with export orders down 17 per cent, which was attributed to the downturn in global trade.

Fixed asset investment surges again:

China’s fixed asset investment surged again in April as a result of the government’s fiscal stimulus package, but exports dropped further, reflecting continuing weak demand in overseas markets.
Spending on fixed assets, particularly transport infrastructure and property, grew 30.5 per cent year-on-year in the first four months of 2009. That compares with a 28.6 per cent increase in the first quarter, said the National Bureau of Statistics.
April’s exports fell 22.6 per cent from a year earlier to US$91.94bn, Customs stated. This was steeper than March’s 17.1 per cent decline. Imports decreased 23 per cent in April, compared with a 25.1 per cent decline in March, which some analysts said was a sign that domestic investors were still unwilling to invest in new capacity.
Fixed asset investment is widely expected to be the biggest driver of GDP growth in 2009. JP Morgan predicted that it could account for 45 per cent of China’s economy this year, if it maintains a growth rate 25-30 percent for the next eight months.

Suzhou-Nantong Bridge formally opens:

The Suzhou-Nantong Yangtze Road Bridge, the world’s largest cable-stayed bridge, has been formally opened in Jiangsu province after five years of construction.
The bridge has a span of 1,088 metres and links the important industrial cities of Nantong and Suzhou, 32km apart. It has three lanes each way and it joins the national highway network on the both banks.
The journey between Shanghai and Nantong now only takes one hour, compared with four hours previously, including a ferry trip. Prior to the formal opening ceremony, the bridge has been operating on a trial basis for one month, when there was a daily flow of 20,000 to 30,000 vehicles.
People’s Daily reported that the bridge cost Rmb7.89bn to build and was the most complicated ever constructed in China, setting several technical records.
Jiangsu has built many bridges over the Yangtze in recent years as it strives to improve economic conditions in the relatively undeveloped northern part of the province.

Domestic air cargo volumes return to growth:

Domestic air cargo and parcel post volumes in China increased 1.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2009, compared with sharp falls in the last quarter of 2008, according to Ministry of Transport data. Total air cargo volume for the first quarter declined 16 per cent year-on-year, but a smaller fall of 13.5 per cent was registered in March, reported Cargonews Asia.
Gross air cargo volume in the mainland stood at 8.83m tonnes in 2008, up 2.6 per cent over the previous year but 13 per cent down from the annual growth in 2007.
The China Air Transport Association said the statistics indicated that the domestic air transport sector was on its way to recovery.

Work starts on VW plant in Chengdu:

First Automobile Works (FAW) and Volkswagen have officially started construction of its joint venture in Chengdu, Sichuan province, Xinhua reported.
With an annual output of 150,000 cars, the Chengdu plant will assemble the Volkswagen Jetta model and is expected to help the automaker to gain a larger market share in China’s western regions.
It will also be an important contributor to Volkswagen’s sales target of 2m units in China by 2013, said the German company’s China CEO Winfried Vahland.

Repair work starts on Baoji-Chengdu railway:

China has started revamping a railway from Baoji in Shaanxi province to Sichuan province’s capital Chengdu to enhance the line’s capacity and support rebuilding activities in the earthquake zone.
More than 5,000 workers and 150 oversize vehicles have been deployed on the project, which is expected to take 50 days to complete.
Last year’s earthquake in Sichuan destroyed the southern section of the railway and the No. 109 tunnel in Gansu province. The new tunnel, which will be made of steel-reinforced concrete, will allow trains to reach speeds of 80 kph, up from 60 kph previously.
The Baoji-Chengdu line is as an important transportation route from north China to Sichuan, and it played a significant role in carrying relief goods to Mianyang, Deyang and Wenchuan, places badly affected by the earthquake.

Metal ore imports increase again:

China’s iron ore imports in April jumped 33 per cent year-on-year to 57m tons, according to the General Administration of Customs. The country imported a total of 188.5m tons of iron ore in the first four months, up 22.9 per cent year-on-year.
Copper and related products imports surged at an even higher rate, rising 62 per cent to 399,833 tonnes and beating the previous record set in March.
Analysts said the data did not indicate a recovery in real demand, but that purchase decisions were driven mainly by government stockpiling and arbitrage to take advantage of higher Chinese domestic prices for some goods.
Zhu Bin, head of research at Nanhua Futures, warned that it might be difficult for the country to digest these record import levels, especially of copper, and that a price correction might follow.

Delayed opening for Jiangyin chemical plant:

China Clean Energy Inc, a manufacturer of fuel and specialty chemical products, said that the construction of its plant in Jiangyin, Jiangsu province will now be completed in September 2009. This will be three months later than originally scheduled.
The company blamed the rainy season and delays resulting from a construction accident suffered by one of its contractors.
The plant should reach full capacity in the second quarter of 2010.

PYI proposes rights issue to fund Yichang port stake:

PYI Corporation, the Hong Kong-based bulk cargo port and infrastructure operator, has proposed to raise HK$362m (US$46.7m) from a rights issue to fund its stake in Yichang Port Group, reported Lloyd’s List. Last September, PYI signed an agreement to take a 51 per cent stake in Yichang Port Group, an important transhipment hub in the middle reaches of the Yangtze.
PYI has an established presence in the Yangtze ports sector, being the largest shareholder in Nantong Port Group in Jiangsu province.
Many Yangtze port cities, however, are increasingly concerned about ceding majority control to outside parties. They appreciate that port development plays a vital role in rejuvenating local industries but that the commercial interests of outside majority shareholders can sometimes hinder rather than facilitate industrial expansion.