Zhanjiang Port (Group) Co, managing the 16th largest port in China, is seeking a domestic listing in the second half of this year, company sources said.
The proceeds from the initial public offering will help finance its effort to boost its annual handling capacity by around 50 million tons, said top officials from the company on condition of anonymity.
However, they declined to reveal details of the listing due to its sensitive nature.
"In the coming three to five years, our group plans to invest about 6 billion yuan to increase capacity," said the sources.
Zhanjiang Port (Group), held by the Zhanjiang city government, Hong Kong-listed China Merchants Holdings (International) Co and Shanghai-based Baosteel Group Corp, handled 64.27 million tons of goods last year, mostly iron ore and crude oil, a growth of 8 percent over 2008.
With its 300,000-ton crude oil dock, the largest in the country, and a 250,000-ton iron ore dock, the largest in southern China, it is "embracing strong momentum from the iron and steel, petrochemical and some other industrial projects", the company officials said last week.
A memorandum of understanding for a 60 billion yuan refinery and petrochemical project in Zhanjiang was signed by the Guangdong provincial government, Sinopec Group and Kuwait Petroleum Corp in October last year. This major project will boost traffic at the port.
The project will be capable of refining 15 million tons of crude and producing 1 million tons of ethylene a year with crude coming from Kuwait.
A new 300,000-ton crude oil dock will be completed at Zhanjiang port later this year and a 300,000-ton bulk goods dock is under construction.
On the container business front, Zhanjiang Port (Group) is building two 50,000-ton berths, which are scheduled to be completed in the first half of next year. Three more will be built in the second phase. The company handled 240,000 twenty-foot equivalent units in 2008.
Located in the less developed southwest of Guangdong, Zhanjiang is competing with ports in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in southwestern China.
In order to extend the reach of Zhanjiang port further inland, a second railway line between Litang in Guangxi and Zhanjiang was opened to traffic in May last year, while a rail link between Luoyang in Henan province and Zhanjiang is also under construction.
