A joint venture agreement was signed by the Caofeidian Coal Wharf Project Company, the Caofeidian Port Company and the State Development & Investment Corporation (SDIC) to build the terminal. SDIC holds 51% of Caofeidian Port, which will take responsibility for the development and construction of the port.
Other investors include the Hebei Provincial Construction Investment Company, the Qinhuangdao Port Group, the Guangdong Zhujiang Investment Company and the Tangshan City Investment Company.
Located in Luannan county, Caofeidian lies between Xingang of Tanggu and Qinhuangdao harbour. The port will be equipped with 16 deep-water berths capable of receiving 250,000 ton ships. It also has good rail links with four major railways running through the area.
The annual coal transportation capacity of the Datong-Qinhuangdao Railway is set to increase to 200 million tons this year, reported China Daily. But the Qinhuangdao Port in Hebei Province, the largest coal port in north China, can only handle 150Mt. A branch line linking the Datong-Qinhuangdao Railway and Caofeidian will be constructed to handle the surplus.
The Caofeidian Port will initially have an annual capacity of 50Mt of coal, but will eventually reach 200Mt.
Iron and steel producer Shougang Group is expected to relocate most of its existing production facilities to Caofeidian and phase out its smelting operations in Beijing by the end of 2010.
