PYI Corporation, the Hong Kong-based bulk cargo port operator, has acquired a 25 per cent interest in Jiangyin Sunan International Container Terminal from Shanghai International Port Group for a sum of Rmb28m.

Jiangyin Sunan operates the container terminal in Jiangyin port. Situated in Jiangsu province, Jiangyin is one of the fastest growing ports on the Yangtze. Its throughput totalled 87.4m tonnes in 2008, representing an increase of 21 per cent year-on-year. Container throughput grew by 64 per cent to 500,000 teu.

PYI said that Jiangyin Sunan intends to consolidate other major terminals in the city with a view to improving services through operational synergy and economies of scale.

Mr Zhu Minyang, Secretary of Jiangyin Municipal Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, said he was confident that service quality levels would improve. “The logistics and manufacturing industries of Jiangyin will become the two wings that take the economy of Jiangyin to the next level,” he said.

PYI already has investments in the Yangtze port cities of Nantong and Yichang as well as Hubei Minsheng LPG Terminal.