Stocks News
- Qingdao Port eyes 2007 share listing
Date: 8-Mar-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
QINGDAO Port, China's fifth largest port, aims to float shares on the domestic or Hong Kong market this year to expand its container business, its chairman said yesterday.
Qingdao, in the booming coastal province of Shandong, is China's largest crude oil port and the world's largest iron ore port. Throughput is estimated to rise to 260 million tons this year, from 224 million last year.
The port is in talks with UBS, Goldman Sachs and BOC International (China) Ltd. to act as financial advisers for the offer, Chang Dechuan of Qingdao Port (Group) Co., told reporters.
'The container business is our future. More and more bulk goods like soybeans are shipped in containers as the country's foreign trade grows,'Chang said.
'We aim to list this year, preferably in Hong Kong.'
A final decision on where to list would be made by the government, he said. He declined to disclose the size of the offer.
Qingdao Port will expand its container business to be able to handle 20 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) by 2010, compared with 7.7 million in 2006 and 9.0 million forecast for this year, said Chang.
Its crude oil berths will be able to handle 45 million tons of oil this year after a new, 18 million tons-per-year berth begins operations next month.
The berths would also handle imports destined for the country's strategic crude oil reserves in a nearby port, which will have a total storage capacity of 5 million tons, Chang said. The reserve will begin to be filled this year.
The port would not further expand its iron ore and coal handling capacities because of limited space, he said.
Iron ore imports through Qingdao hit 67 million tons last year, or 21 percent of the country's total imports.
Chang expects the port's revenues to rise to 8.2 billion yuan (US$1.1 billion) this year, up from nearly 8.0 billion yuan last year. Net profit last year hit 1.3 billion yuan.
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