China to build top-class yacht port in Tianjin

PostTime:2010-10-14 07:55:35 View:761

TIANJIN - China plans to build a top-class yacht port in North China's Tianjin municipality by the year-end, which will allow the country's super-rich to dock their luxury vessels at a port near the capital Beijing, local officials said Wednesday.The port will cover an area of 900,000 square meters in Tianjin's booming Binhai district and will have 750 berths to accommodate 300-foot-long(about 91.5 meters) luxury yachts, Yang Shihao, a deputy head of Binhai district, said at a tourism festival Wednesday.Five-star hotels, commercial streets, along with yacht manufacturing and repair bases, will also be set up in the port area.Yang said the project would cost 9 billion yuan (about $1.35 billion).Only people with an annual income of over 200,000 yuan ($30,000) will be allowed to sign up for membership to the yacht club to rent a luxury vessel, while members who intend to buy a yacht should have an annual income of over 2 million yuan ($300,000), officials said.China has seen a fast-expanding middle class in recent years. The latest Hurun Rich List, published Tuesday, says the country now has 1,363 billionaires; 97 of them boast personal wealth of over 10 billion yuan."The time is actually perfect in China for the yacht industry to take off," said David Brightling, general manager of the yacht club of HK-based Rainbow Land Holdings Ltd, one of the sponsors of Dongjiang yacht port."I think one of the things we can do is to train young people to drive any kind of boat and let them have more fun," Brightling added.

Tianjin Port sees another record-breaking year

PostTime:2010-10-08 07:59:25 View:509

Tianjin Port Group handled cargo throughput of over 300 million tonnes for the year to October 1, 2010, 19 days earlier compared to last year, reported NewsTrak Daily.Tianjin Port handled cumulative cargo throughput of 1.7 billion tonnes during the 11th Five-year Plan period, doubling that in the 10th Five-year Plan. In 2009, it ranked as the fifth largest in the world, up from sixth position in 2005. From January-September 2010, the container throughput of Tianjin Port grew 5.3 percent year-on-year to 7.38 million TEUs.

Tianjin port announces planning for next two decades

PostTime:2010-08-18 08:10:03 View:551

TIANJIN port has announced its general planning between 2010 and 2030 to facilitate constructing itself as the international transport hub in northern China, reported Xinhua.The enhancement includes the expansion of the Tianjin port area to 245 square metres, which will be equipped with a total of 390 berths.In 2015, the cargo throughput of Tianjin port will exceed 550 million tonnes, while its container throughput will be more than 17 million TEU.

Tianjin Port to issue RMB 1 billion in short-term bills

PostTime:2010-08-11 09:11:57 View:570

Tianjin Port Group, the largest port operator in North China, yesterday announced that it will issue RMB 1 billion worth of short-term bills with a maturity of 365 days on the interbank market on Aug. 12, market sources reported.The firm said in a statement that the bills will be issued at face value and that the yield will be determined in the process of book building.China Merchants Bank have been assigned as joint major underwriters for the issuance.China Dagong Global Credit Rating Co Ltd has rated the issuer and bills AAA and A-1, respectively.The proceeds from the bill issue will be used to replenish working capital and make payment for engineering projects, said the firm.

Tianjin port to offer homeport service in June

PostTime:2010-05-28 08:19:24 View:663

Tianjin port will officially start to offer homeport services for international cruise liners on June 26, said the port authority on Wednesday.The world's leading cruise liner "Legend of the Seas" has booked the Tianjin port as its homeport for eight voyages starting from July.

Tianjin Port's profits slide

PostTime:2010-04-14 08:10:33 View:588

China's Tianjin Port has seen 2009 profits slide by almost one third compared to a year ago on weaker cargo volumes. Net profits for the Shenzhen-listed company were CNY644m ($94.3m) against the CNY942m seen in 2008. The port group said 2009 revenues came in at CNY9.7bn, a 13% decline on the CNY11.2bn a year earlier. However, operating costs showed a marked decline at CNY8.4bn, down 12.4% or almost CNY1.2bn, from the CNY9.6bn in 2008. In 2009 Tianjin Port was impacted by losses of CNY99m related to the ramping up of new container and coal terminals. These included a CNY51m stake-adjusted loss at Pacific International Container Terminal Co (PICT), CNY34m at China Coal-Huaneng Coal Terminal and CNY14m from Shenhua Coal Terminal. Container throughput was 4.4m-teu, an 8% rise on the 4mteu seen in 2008, helped by a 44% increase in volumes at its 51% owned PICTC. Iron ore shipments jumped 40% year-on-year to 85mt, while coal shipments fell 34% to 61.2mt due to lower coal exporting levels. Tianjin Port is the major listed vehicle for Tianjin Port Group, the largest ports group in northern China and the sixth largest in the world. About 60% of its revenues come from coal and metal ore related cargos, while containers make up a further 25%.

Tianjin port boosts links with Mongolia

PostTime:2010-04-02 07:46:59 View:701

Tianjin port has stepped up its efforts to handle more of landlocked Mongolia's import and export traffic.Links have been improved between Mongolia and China's Bohai Bay-based port - the main port for Mongolia due to its geographical proximity - after the two recently struck an agreement which allows Mongolian shippers to process customs clearance procedures in their own cities rather than travel to Tianjin to do this.Following a visit to Mongolia by various officials of Tianjin's local government, an agreement was put in place whereby cargo could be customs-cleared and inspected, whenever needed, in the three Mongolian border 'ports' of Bortou, Hohhot and Ulaanbaatar. Tom Chen, general manager of DP World's Tianjin Orient Complex terminals at Tianjin, told ci eXpress: 'Tianjin's government visited these cities last year in order to work out a way of serving the factories in these cities faster. Due to the downturn, volumes from Mongolia to Tianjin have not increased, but Tianjin is looking at this long term and over the long term, volumes will increase.'He added that rail services between the port and the Mongolian border - via which all cargo moves - had recently been increased in frequency, from one to three times a week.These factors are especially important as Hebei province is also close to Mongolia and is constructing a container port which, once finished in the next two or three years, will also be targeting cargo to/from this area.Chen believes that Tianjin will still have the 'upper hand', due to its long history with the area and the new customs clearance policy just put in place.

Cash for Tianjin

PostTime:2010-01-19 07:48:00 View:613

Fresh from its share placement last week Tianjin Port Development Holdings has raised a further HKD1.6bn ($208m). The Chinese terminal operator said it had arranged a loan facility for the amount with four unnamed financial institutions. The Hong Kong-listed company said the facility has a term of 36 months commencing from the date of the facility agreement. Last week Tianjin Port Development Holdings sold 986.5m shares at HKD2.50 a piece to raise around HKD2.5bn. The share placement, Hong Kong's first of 2010, was arranged Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Citic Securities. Tianjin intends to use the proceeds from the share placement and the loan to fund its acquisition of a 56.8% stake in Shanghai-listed Tianjin Port Holdings for HKD11bn. Tianjin Port Development Holdings is principally engaged in container handling services at the port of Tianjin in northern China. The port operator handled about 4.4mteu in the whole of 2008 and about 2.17mteu in the first half of 2009.

Tianjin port container throughput up 2.4 pc to 8.7 TEU

PostTime:2010-01-14 08:19:33 View:798

THE Port of Tianjin had handled 8.7 million TEU in 2009, up 2.4 per cent year on year, Logistics Week reported. At the meantime, the port's cumulative cargo tonnage exceeded 380 million tonnes, growing 6.7 per cent year on year. The port also recorded increases of more than five per cent in its domestic and foreign trade cargo volume during this period. Port of Tianjin has managed to overcome the difficulties brought by the world financial crisis and succeeded in achieving increase at a time when decrease prevailed, said the report. In 2009, the port spent CNY12.8 billion (US$1.87 billion) on port construction projects. The new container terminal, Euroasia International Container Terminal, has been finished, bringing extra capacity of 1.7 million TEU to the port. Two new bulk berths has start trial operation and will add 11 million tonnes' capacity to the port after full completion in 2010. A new crude oil terminal has also been built with a capacity 20 million tonnes.

Tianjin Binhai new area officially open

PostTime:2010-01-13 08:03:04 View:754

The Binhai New Area is now officially open, with the formal launch Monday morning, of a local government. Located in the coastal region of Tianjin Municipality, the New Area looks set to take off as a hub for commerce and trade in northern China.In front of the government building, about 200 officials attended an inauguration ceremony, showing that the Binhai New Area now has administrative status. The new administrative district brings together three old districts of Tanggu, Hangu and Dagang.Together, they now make up the Binhai New Area, which covers an area of more than two thousand square kilometers, with a population of two million people. Nine sub-branch zones, will oversee the different areas of manufacturing, logistics, tourism, ecological construction, and commerce.The structure of management has now been simplified, with the number of government departments cut to a quarter of what it used to be. Officials say this will significantly improve efficiency of the government.Zong Guoying, director of Tianjin Binhai New Area, said, "The government of Binhai New Area will focus on macro-control, such as structural layout, policies, and innovation. Sub branch zones will be in charge of micro-management. This will prevent wasteful competition and promote more sharing of resources."The Binhai New Area enjoys all the benefits of having a coastline. Serving as an international shipping and logistics center, it looks set to develop into a hub for opening up commerce in northern China.

Airbus to open logistics center in Tianjin

PostTime:2009-10-30 07:50:47 View:1048

TIANJIN: Airbus will open its first logistics center in Asia early next year in north China's Tianjin Municipality, after signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the local government Thursday."As the Airbus is deepening cooperation with its Chinese counterparts," the center is built as the pivot for its supply chain management in China," said Laurence Barron, president of Airbus China.It is expected to harmonize the transport systems for all aircraft components flowing in and out of China, he said.The center will begin operation at a temporary site in the Tianjin Port Bonded Area of the Binhai New Area in early 2010, before its permanent location is determined after next March, according to the MOU.The Airbus now has six Chinese component suppliers, who are located across the country and handle their own logistics, he said. "The unified management can cut cost and raise business efficiency."Tianjin has Airbus' first A320 aircraft final assembly line outside Europe, which is expected to deliver 11 planes by the end of this year.The launch of the assembly line has attracted a great number of aviation companies at home and broad to settle in Tianjin, said He Lifeng, director of the administration commission of Binhai.Airbus, one of the world's largest commercial plane makers, forecast its procurement of components and materials in China will rise to 200 million dollars by 2010, and 450 million dollars by 2015.

Great Wall Airlines adds Tianjin to network

PostTime:2008-03-21 09:59:24 View:1455

Great Wall Airlines said today it will add Tianjin to its freighter network from March 30 and become the first carrier to offer direct scheduled all cargo flights to Europe from the Northeast China city.The Sino-Singapore carrier, which is preparing to add flights to Chicago and Los Angeles, said it will serve Tianjin with five flights per week using its fleet of Boeing 747-400 freighters. The new service will fly three times a week on the Shanghai Pudong/Tianjin Binhai International/Amsterdam-Schiphol route, and twice weekly on the service calling Pudong/Tianjin/Amsterdam/Manchester."Our freighter services from Tianjin will enable us to support the supply chain needs of our customers for northern China. It is also our way of affirming our confidence in the future of Tianjin,” said Tan Kai Ping, Great Wall's president. “We have an exciting year ahead. In a few months, we will be announcing the launch of services to USA.”Great Wall is jointly owned by the Beijing Aerospace Satellite Applications Corp. (51 percent), part of China Great Wall Industry Corp.; Singapore Airlines Cargo (25 percent); and Dahlia Investments (24 percent), a subsidiary of Singapore-state owned Temasek Holdings.