China Anticipates Rapid Maritime Growth

China's marine shipping business continued to grow rapidly and notched up 341.4 billion yuan (about 46.77 billion U.S. dollars) in value added last year, according to a report from Xinhua.

The figure poses a year-on-year rise of 21.1 percent, according to a statistical bulletin released at an ongoing annual conference of the State Oceanic administration (SOA).

The number of coastal ports with handling capacity exceeding 100 million dwt each has totaled 14 in the country.

Shanghai Port, for example, handled 26.15 million TEU in 2007, surpassing Hong Kong to rank second globally. And the TEU throughput grew by more than 20 percent from 2006.

In tandem with the fast growth in marine shipping business, China also saw expansion in the shipbuilding industry. The sector scored 44.8 billion yuan (about 6.14 billion dollars) in value added last year, a rise of 17.6 percent from the year 2006.

China's shipbuilding sector completed ships equivalent to 18 million deadweight tonnage (DWT) and received orders for ships totaling 70 million DWT in the same year.