China Shipping Terminal Development Co., Ltd. (CSTD), the terminal operation branch of China Shipping Group, has announced that it has entered an investment agreement with Fuzhou Port Authority Group (FZPA).

The agreement comprises two aspects: Firstly, CSTD will purchase a 20% share in the operation of Phase 1 of a container terminal project located in Jiangyin Port Area of Fuzhou. Secondly, CSTD will have a 20% share in the construction and operation of Phase 2.

Phase 1 has three berths with a handling capacity of 1.2 million TEU per year, and is currently operated by Fuzhou International Container Terminal (FICT), a consortium of FZPA and PSA.

Phase 2 of the facility, which will have two berths, is planned to start construction shortly and be operational by October 2008.

When all five berths are in place, Jiangyin Port Area will have a total capacity of 3 million TEU per annum.

Statistics shows that the volume growth of Fuzhou Port was strongly driven by containers handled in Jiangyin.

Fuzhou handled 980,000 TEU in the first ten months, and is on course to easily surpass last year's 1.01 million TEU.