Sources from Beihai Port Authority said three pieces of modernized container loading and unloading equipment, the main part of the new berth project, have been installed and are now being fine tuned.

The new berth, which will cost 80 million yuan (about US$9.6 million), is designed to handle 50,000 TEUs of containers annually.

Beihai, which sits on the northern bank of Beibu Gulf, is a major efficient sea outlet for southwest China to export locally manufactured commodities to the outside world. It has so far established business ties with 218 ports in 98 countries and regions.

Beihai first launched a container ship service to Hong Kong in 1996. Due to a lack of modernized container berths, container loading and unloading was very slow at the port, far behind the growing foreign trade demand.

The new container berth will not only enormously improve the speed to load and unload containers at Beihai Port, but also enable this southern Chinese port city to play a bigger role in helping the southwestern Chinese provinces and autonomous regions boost foreign trade, said an official with Beihai Port Authority.

(Xinhua 04/18/2001)