Projects harken Fujian's expanding marine economy

A number of key projects have been launched in the past six months, marking concrete steps forward for Maritime Fuzhou, a milestone initiative for boosting the local marine economy implemented in the capital city of Fujian province in November 2016.

The Binhai New City, which broke ground in Changle - a county-level city under Fuzhou's jurisdiction - in February, marks a milestone for the Maritime Fuzhou initiative as it will lend more space for the expansion of Fuzhou, where industrial development has been bottlenecked by limited available space in the existing city center.

At the new area's inauguration ceremony on Feb 13, more than 80 infrastructure and industrial projects, requiring total investment of 200 billion ($29 billion), were announced.

In the county-level city of Fuqing, which is home to the deepwater Jiangyin port area, construction on several key harbor projects was recently completed.

Fuzhou's largest refined oil terminal, the Jiangyin No 11 Harbor - which can berth oil vessels up to 100,000 metric tons, became operational in late April. The terminal is expected to handle 5 million metric tons of refined oil each year, according to He Xueqiu, an official in charge of the project's construction.

Jiangyin has the best deepwater port area in Fujian province. According to the port area's development plan, a total of 55 berths, which can accommodate vessels of up to 250,000 metric tons, will be built in its first phase, resulting in an annual cargo throughput of 180 million metric tons and container throughput of 10 million twenty-foot-equivalent units upon completion.

Construction on a liquid chemicals terminal was also completed earlier this month in Jiangyin.

Construction of several port-based industrial zones is also underway in Fuqing, involving total investment of 108.6 billion yuan.

In Lianjiang county, more than 240 projects are planned or under construction.

Most of the projects are in the Kemen Industrial Zone, including a huge caprolactam-polyamide production facility.

With total investment of 40 billion yuan, the 400,000-ton caprolactam-polyamide project is expected to be the largest of its kind in the world.

The Kemen zone, covering 340 square kilometers and including harbors and industrial facilities, will become a new marine industry center of Fuzhou.

(China Daily 05/26/2017 page23)