Shandong province of China established a port holding group yesterday, called Shandong Bohai Bay Port Group, to integrate the port assets in the Bohai Bay region.
The decision by Shandong government follows a wave of port asset integration in China in response to the central government’s call to shed overcapacity. In the past two years, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Fujian and Liaoning have all set up their own provincial port operating platform.
According to the plan, the new group will firstly integrate three smaller ports in Shandong, Binzhou Port, Dongying Port and Weifang Port, into one platform and government is mulling the merger between Qingdao Port and Weihai Port for the next step of integration.
Shandong is a major shipping province in China. The three major ports Qingdao, Rizhao and Yantai, are ranked fifth, ninth and tenth in terms of annual cargo throughput among Chinese ports.
