Qinhuangdao - Economy

Economy

Qinhuangdao Port is a strategically important port on China and is the largest coal shipping port in the country, much of which is shipped to power plants elsewhere in China. With recent expansion, its capacity has reached 209 million metric tons. The harbor is also adding a further six berths to add further capacity and is increasingly being invested in by other port operators, such as South Africa's Richards Bay Coal Terminal, who have announced plans to invest US$150 million to increase capacity by at least 28 percent.

China is also the worlds third largest coal exporter, and Qinhuangdao is expected to handle much of the nations coal exports. Rail links from Shanxi province (China’s largest coal producer) to Qinhuangdao Port are in the process of being upgraded, which should allow for Qinhuangdao to ultimately increase its throughput to 400 million tones of coal per annum from its current level of about 250 million tons by 2015.

Other Chinese and foreign service suppliers are also moving to Qinhuangdao to support this. China Ocean Shipping (Group) Co, China's biggest shipping company, expects US$49 billion of spending on ports over the next five years as the industry tackles bottlenecks created by the nation's unprecedented economic boom.

Qinhuangdao is located along the Jingshen Expressway which links Beijing with Shenyang, Liaoning