Host City

Guangdong Special: Zhuhai to boost port, aviation industries

By Zhan Lisheng (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-26 08:01

The aviation park near the Zhuhai Airport will include equipment manufacturing, aviation training, maintenance, logistics and exhibitions. Photos by Wang Jing / China Daily

The Zhuhai city government recently released ambitious plans for the development of Gaolan Port Economic Zone and the Zhuhai Aviation Industrial Park.

According to the plans, Gaolan port will handle more than 100 million tons of bulk cargo and 3 to 5 million containers in five years, when its industrial output value will reach 100 to 150 billion yuan.

The blueprint envisions the port as an industrial hub for chemicals and heavy industry in about a decade, said Wu Aicun, deputy director of the zone's administrative committee.

The design also calls for the zone to be a leading center of marine engineering, equipment manufacturing, shipbuilding and drydocks, petrochemicals, clean energy, logistics and tourism.

International giants including BP, Shell, BMW, Elantas, ABN AMRO, Hutchison Whampoa, Cheung Kong, Brazil CVRD, Mitsubishi and Hyosung Group already have massive projects at the port.

It is also home to projects invested by massive Chinese enterprises such as China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), China State Shipbuilding Corp (CSSC), Sinochem, PetroChina, China Railway, China Ocean Shipping, China Metallurgical and Hong Kong China Travel.

Wu said a 44.3 billion yuan CSSC project will turn the zone into the shipbuilding and marine engineering equipment manufacturing base with the largest tonnage capacity in China.

The 50 billion yuan CNOOC facility is designed to make Gaolan a strategic base for oil and gas field development in the South China Sea.

In aviation, the city of Zhuhai aims to realize an annual industrial output value of more than 60 billion yuan in about 10 years, according to He Jun, deputy director of the administrative committee of the Zhuhai Aviation Industrial Park.

The zone will include equipment manufacturing, R&D, pilot training, aviation exhibition and services, logistics and maintenance, repair and overhauling, He said.

Zhuhai already hosts the China International Aviation and Airspace Exhibition every two years, the only of its kind in China.

Training services of Xiangyi Aviation Technology Co makes Zhuhai a preferred aviation training base in China, while the engine maintenance service of MTU Maintenance Zhuhai, a joint venture between Germany's MTU Aero Engines and China Southern, has made this coastal city a leading site for engine maintenance in China.

(China Daily 10/26/2010 page17)