People's Daily reported that the construction of Tianjian Port Nanjiang Special Ore Terminal project and the Tianjin Port Shenhua Coal Terminal auxiliary project began simultaneously on July 28th 2009. Investment in the two projects totaled CNY 2.94 billion and CNY 3.78 billion respectively. Upon completion of the projects, Tianjin Port will have a newly added annual handling capacity of 58 million tonnes.

The Nanjiang Special Ore Terminal will be 400 meters in length. It is designed for 300,000 tonnes bulk cargo ships and will have an annual handling capacity of 23 million tonnes. The Tianjin Port Shenhua Coal Terminal auxiliary project will have three special coal berths designed for 30,000 tonnes to 50,000 tonnes coals which will mainly be used for railways, railway depots and roads. Each berth will have an annual handling capacity of 35 million tonnes.

In the first half of 2009, Tianjin Port actively coped with the international financial crisis and made great efforts to construct the port, expand its functions and organize production. In this period the port handled 185 million tonnes of cargo, up by 1.2%, reversing the trend of decline since the beginning of this year. The port also handled 4.16 million standard containers, up by 1.9%. This growth rate is 0.5 percentage points faster than that in the first quarter.

(Sourced from People's Daily)