China's Dalian Port has signed a letter of intent with PetroChina to build a crude oil terminal in the Xin Gang area of Dalian.
Reports say that the oil terminal project, a 50:50 joint venture (JV), is scheduled to handle tankers up to 300,000 deadweight tonnes (dwt). Terminal facilities will be designed to handle up to 21.1 million tonnes of crude oil per year. Dalian Port chairman Sun Hong expects the terminal to be operational in 2009.
The port had recently announced plans for a JV with Norwegian operator Odfjell ASA to develop and operate an oil port with tank farm facilities and terminals in the Caofeidian Industrial Zone in Tangshan of China's Hebei province. China's Central Government had called the project the 'Rotterdam' of China.
Meanwhile, first half statistics show that with regards to crude oil and oil and petrochemical products, Dalian Port handled 7.2% more than the same period last year. Container throughput for the first half of this year also jumped an impressive 26.3% year-on-year.
According to Sun, although port handling charges have gone up 10%, tariffs at Dalian Port are still about 20-30% lower than in Shanghai and 50-70% lower than in Shenzhen.