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- Category: Top News
- Published: Tuesday, 20 March 2012 13:21
News came from the administration committee of Ningbo Meishan Bonded Port Area that the State Council has recently approved the plan to expand opening up of Ningbo Port, following the official approval of the establishment of Meishan Bonded Port Area in February 2008.
The bonded port area, 30 kilometers away from downtown Ningbo, is the fifth bonded port area in China approved by the State Council. The latest approval of opening up involves all the 27-kilometer coastline of Meishan Island.
Reportedly, the first phase of Meishan Bonded Port Area with an area of 2.5 square kilometers has been put into use since June 2010. In August that year, the container terminal was put into trial operation. As it is still in temporary opening period, the joint check of foreign ships by all related departments of the bonded port area usually costs about 1.5 hours. The time will be reduced to less than an hour when it is opened officially. According to the planning, some special markets for import and export commodities, such as trading centers for imported food, liquid chemicals and electronic products, will be established in Meishan Bonded Port Area, making it a distribution center for various resources and elements
Affected by the global financial crisis, the shipping industry, which is closely related to foreign trade, has undergone great pressure since the second half of last year. The shipbuilding industry in Ningbo is confronted with a severe situation after a rapid annual growth rate of 1.5 times for two successive years.
The latest statistics from Ningbo Customs show that in the first two months, 3337 ships valued at 82.48 million US dollars were exported, down by 43% and 58.9% respectively over the same period last year. Among them, 3335 ships (worth 897,000 US dollars) are small ships for entertainment and sports utility, and were exported on a general trade basis.
According to some related officials from Ningbo Customs, the dramatic decrease of ship exports in Ningbo was mainly caused by the ever-growing contradiction of supply and demand in the market. Mr. Ye, Manager of Ningbo Dongsheng Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., said that since the second half of last year, the shipping market has entered “deep winter period”. Last year, some shipbuilding plants could draw on their previous orders. However, with the decrease of inquiries this year, shipbuilding enterprises are facing the problem of order shortage. In addition, with the ever-increasing cost caused by price rise of raw materials, financing difficulties, increase of labor costs and appreciation of RMB, the profit space of related enterprises is shrinking.
The Government of Jiangdong District plans to allocate another 214 mln yuan for 95 projects this year. Theses projects are mostly related to the wellbeing of residents, among which 195 mln yuan will go to such sectors as road building and repairing, renovation of old city and education as well as sanitary facilities, which accountfor 91.2% of the newly scheduled expenditure.