Shanghai International Port (Group) Co expects the volume of business in the Port of Shanghai to rise by about 10 percent a year during the next five years.[Photo / China Daily]

SHANGHAI - Shanghai port, the world's busiest for containers, expects business volumes to rise about 10 percent annually for the next five years. That will come as manufacturers open plants in western and inland China in search of lower-cost labor.

Rising production in these regions has benefited Shanghai because of increasing cargo volumes along the Yangtze River, said Chen Xuyuan, president of the harbor operator Shanghai International Port (Group) Co, in a June 23 interview. The river, Asia's longest, stretches 6,397 kilometers across China before meeting the East China Sea at Shanghai.

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The Yangtze River Delta "will continue to be the main region driving China's economic expansion", Chen said. The river handled 1.34 billion tons of cargo in 2009, more than triple the volume in 2000, according to government data.

Shanghai's container traffic may rise 12 percent this year, enough to retain its crown for cargo-box volumes over Singapore, Chen said.

Volumes leapt 16 percent in 2010 as the end of the global recession triggered a surge in shipments of Chinese-made auto parts, furniture and toys to the United States and Europe. "Last year, we saw incredible growth," Chen said. "This year, traffic is growing at a more normal and healthy pace."

Shanghai handled 12.7 million containers in the first five months of this year, compared with 12.1 million by Singapore.

Apple Inc supplier Foxconn Technology Group and Lee & Man Paper Manufacturing Ltd. are among the companies to have opened factories in inland provinces because of lower wages and government incentives. The government has encouraged the trend to spread economic growth beyond coastal regions including the Pearl River Delta in Southern China.

Shanghai last year surpassed Singapore as the world's busiest container port.

Bloomberg News