Dalian could become Northeast Asia's shipping and logistics hub after the completion of several gigantic port terminals and deep-water berths, Dalian Mayor Xia Deren said.

The city is speeding up construction of a 300,000-ton crude oil import terminal and a 250,000-ton ore import terminal, scheduled to go into operation by the middle of next year. Two large container berths in its core Dayaowan port will also be completed next year.

Dalian has applied to the General Administration of Customs to extend the bonded zone from the Dagushan Peninsular area by 5 square kilometres to cover Dayaowan, said Xia.

"The integration of the bonded zone and the port, once in place, will be a great boost to Dalian's transshipping service," Xia said during a recent press conference in Dalian.

Dalian is planning to improve the port's handling capacity to 150 million tons and 5 million containers by 2010, with 83 deep-water berths being constructed in the centre of the port.

By then, Dalian will become the largest transshipment centre for oil products and ores in China.

With a handling capacity of 1.35 million containers last year, Dalian is currently ranked seventh in domestic ports.

But Xia said the port will enjoy a 20 per cent yearly growth with the recovery of the region's economy. More than 70 per cent of the imports and exports in Northeast China go through Dalian.

The northeastern region is a perennial heavy industrial base that played a central role in China's economic lifeline, but has sunk to a low point in the past decade, largely due to heavy taxation burdens and an over-staffed State sector.

In the meantime, Dalian's rank in domestic ports slid to seventh from a peak of second after Shanghai.

In a backup scheme released in August, the central government has decided to "rejuvenate" the Northeast into a new economic powerhouse paralleling the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze Delta and the Beijing region.

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