Central China river city Wuhan recently worked out a plan which involves spending 53 billion yuan (US$8.33 billion) on port development in the 12th National Five-year Plan (2011-2015), according to the Shipping Gazette citing Xinhua news.
Wuhan plans to invest 86.1 billion yuan on port development over the long term and eventually raise its container capacity to 2.6 million TEU, or 150 million tonnes in terms of tonnage.
Wuhan now has 27 port areas and 502 berths. It is able to accommodate ships with capacity up to 70 million tonnes and can handle 92 million tonnes of cargo per year. A network of water, rail and road intermodal service has been formed at the port.
Wuhan plans to develop "one centre, three hubs, six bases", which refers to mid-Yangtze shipping centre, Yangtze river shipping hub, multi-modal transportation hub, port industry hub and bases for container shipping, shipbuilding, multimodal transportation, shipping technology and education, logistics and trade, and shipping information.
Currently there are 87 shipping companies in Wuhan, 47 shipbuilding companies, 15 shipping institutes and nine colleges that train over 20,000 professionals for the industry every year.
Source: Shipping Gazette