Port operator China Merchants and Qingdao Port are creating a Rmb6.22bn joint venture to build and operate a container terminal in Qingdao, Shandong province.

Qingdao New Qianwan Container Terminal, invested by Qingdao Port Group, Cosco Pacific, DP World, AP Møller-Maersk and Pan Asia Shipping, along with China Merchants Group’s unit China Merchants Holdings (International), will each hold 50 per cent stakes each in the new venture.

The venture called Qingdao Qianwan United Container Terminal will develop, operate and manage nine berths in Qingdao with a shoreline of 3.16km.

Qingdao Port said the project would benefit the port of Qingdao at a time of global industrial restructuring amid the global financial crisis.

Qingdao, the world’s seventh largest in terms of trade volume, handled more than 300m tons of cargo in the year to December 13, a year-on-year increase of 5 per cent. Container throughput rose 2.3 per cent in the first 11 months to 9.4m TEU.