The Chinese angle

China is adopting a “string of pearls” strategy for naval bases from the Middle East to the South China Sea. The list includes a new base under construction at the Pakistani port of Gwadar,. Other “pearls” include a container port facility at Chittagong, Bangladesh; a naval base under construction in Burma;. In Cambodia, Beijing is helping to construct a railway line from southern China to the sea. Beijing is also discussing with Thailand a canal or railroad across the Kra Isthmus, which would allow shipments to bypass the narrow Strait of Malacca. China’s scorching economic expansion is powering a growing armada of ever-larger container ships plying the waters between Asia and North America. Shanghai, which has been busy reclaiming its status as China’s premier financial and commercial center, is launching more of those ships as its port averages an annual growth rate of 29%. But fast growth can apply a chokehold to aging facilities and the port’s efficiency now is foundering on the shallow, silted Yangtze River bottom. To compensate, planners are moving Shanghai’s far- ocean cargo business from shallow water to deepwater, 31 kilometers off the coast.
Qiqu archipelago, tucked into the mouth of Hangzhou Bay, is being transformed into what soon could become the world’s largest container port. A fleet of dredges has been working since March 2003 to reclaim 26 million cu meters of land from the deep waters off Xiaoyangshan and Huogaitan islands, where five new berths will handle the latest generation of container vessels in the project’s $2-billion first phase. A 32-km-long causeway anchored by five cable-stayed spans will connect the island terminal to the mainland. There, local contractors are building a multimodal transport hub, a new town and a 42-km-long highway to speed goods to their ultimate destination.
On the islands, a double-deck expressway will separate inbound and outbound traffic, with inbound vehicles traveling on a 7-m elevated structure and outbound vehicles on the upper roadway. When the project is complete in 2020, 32 berths will handle over 20 million 20-ft equivalent units (TEUs) per year and push Yangshan Deepwater Port ahead of Singapore and Hong Kong in capacity and throughput.
Hutchison Port Holdings ,worlds largest port operator is a Chinese company .They have recently built Worlds largest Container Transhipment terminal in Bahamas – The Free Port Container Port . Freeport Container Port (FCP) is situated on Grand Bahama Island - one of the largest islands that comprise The Commonwealth of the Bahamas.
The Port, endowed with one of the deepest natural harbours in the region, is just 65 miles off the east coast of Florida, USA and sits at the centre of a 230 square mile free-trade-zone.Freeport Container Port is strategically located to serve as a major world container transshipment hub between the Eastern Gulf Coasts of the United States, the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, South America, and trade lanes to European, Mediterranean, Far Eastern and Australasian destinations. It offers a cost effective, flexible solution for the regional transshipment requirements of shipping lines, combining state-of-the art terminal facilities with significant expansion potential.