¡¡¡¡Marine transport is currently experiencing steady and fast development in China, with seaport operations systems expanding and becoming increasingly intensified and benefit-oriented, and foreign trade structure being further optimised under the macro control of the State government, accompanied by according changes in the variety and quantity of goods carried. Container throughput however began to slow down after reaching above 100 million tons in 2007, although demand for big-lot energy products continued to grow. At the same time, domestic trade transport has become a new driving power in the water-borne transport sector.

¡¡¡¡Improving port layout

¡¡¡¡According to the ¡°National Plan for Port Layout¡±, the development of marine transport was, besides planning for certain large, middle- and small-sized berths, mainly focused on construction of the following projects in 2007:  the Yangshan container terminal in Shanghai port; phase-2 project of Dayaowan basin, Dalian port; coal terminal of Caofeidian basin, Tianjin port; Northern Basin container terminal, Tianjin Port; the 300,000-ton oil terminal of Qianwan basin, Qingdao port, and; phase-2 project of Nansha basin, Guangzhou port.
¡¡¡¡More policy and capital support will be given to river-borne transport during the 11th Five-Year Plan period, with more than 20 billion yuan to be spent on a rationally structured channel system that connects the artery with feeder lines and rivers with the sea. By 2020, a 19,000 kilometres channel network will be completed, including the Yangtze Golden Channel, extension of the 12.5-metre-deep channel of the Yangtze estuary further up to Taicang, advanced channels within the Yangtze delta, channels along Xingjiang river, Jialingjiang river, Ganjiang river and Hanjiang river; the Xijiang artery, the group along the Pearl river; the infrastructure facilities of Lancangjiang river, Heilongjiang river and Huaihe river and treatment of the Pearl river estuary. Moreover, large and specialised fleets of standardised ships will be built to make full use of the improved channel capacities and form gradually a specialised transport system for ores, containers, oil, LNG and Ro/Ro goods.

¡¡¡¡Slowing output growth

¡¡¡¡Driven on by the momentum of 2006, port output increased faster in the first rather than the second half of 2007, with the growth rate dropping 2.2% from 15.9% to 13.7%, or 2% year on year, the lowest since 2002 . Foreign trade volume reached about US$2,200 billion in value, up 23.5% from a year earlier. Generally speaking, output by ports in Northern China, typically centred more on heavy and chemical industries, grew faster, with growth approaching or even surpassing 20%. This was true in places such as Qinhuangdao, Tianjin, Yingkou and Rizhao etc, which recorded the steepest growth in 2007, in contrast to those in Southern China, that mostly dipped below 2007 averages.
¡¡¡¡Container throughput went on to grow in 2007, adding two more 100-million-ton ports to the existing group of 14. Meanwhile, Shanghai port surpassed Hong Kong to become the second largest container port in the world.
¡¡¡¡Nevertheless, that growth, down by 1.6% from a year earlier, became the lowest in the last five years. Mostly it had to do with macro control and hence restrained export of certain commodities. In August, the output of foreign trade products grew for the first time slower than that of home trade products. And the situation worsened through until November. In the whole year, growth in foreign trade output was 0.9% behind that of home trade production, changing a pattern that had lasted for three years on end.

¡¡¡¡Dry bulk transport

¡¡¡¡Coal, Oil metal ores, construction material, steel and machinery still constituted the six major categories of freight sources, accounting for about 70% of the total dry bulk production. But growth speed varied from one to another. Output growth for coal, steel and machinery all approached or exceeded 20%, as against the 2% and 4% for oil and construction material. It is foreseen that, thanks to macro control and newly adopted policies, output of industrial goods like coal, iron ore and steel etc. is likely to drop a little in 2008.
¡¡¡¡Demand for coal continued to surge in 2007, with shipments up by 5.5%, the highest growth yet recorded. But energy conservation and regulations mandating cuts to pollution discharge will possibly help to stabilise the shipments in 2008.
¡¡¡¡China¡¯s iron ore imports fluctuated violently in 2007, mostly due to price adjustments change. With prices set to rise sharply in 2008, imports suddenly soared and averaged above 33 million tons each month, especially after September, and eventually reached 3,700 million tons in November, up a historically high 29%. Yet with tightened macro control and forced reduction of some residual capacity in steel production, growth in iron ore imports is expected to slow down further in 2008, most probably to be kept at around 10%.

¡¡¡¡Financial Innovation

¡¡¡¡China has launched a large-scale development of water-borne transport in recent years, and tried to widen the channel of financing through the use of both Central and local resources. Government input is mainly spent on public navigation courses, while fleet and terminal development is dependent principally on the market to gradually improve the competitive ability of enterprises in the international arena. Private investment has actually become a favourite source of investment for shipping. In Quanzhou city for example, all the three billion Yuan needed for the batch of ordered ships was pooled from society. Yet with more money flowing from that part, supervision by related authorities will certainly also be strengthened.