The president and CEO of the San Diego Unified Port District told a logistics conference in Nanjing that competition among China’s many river and sea ports could ruin the environment and reduce economies of scale due to lack of specialisation.

However, Wayne Darbeau went on to praise the modern equipment at Nanjing port compared with his own port in the US. “They have the right tools for the right tasks,” he was quoted as saying by the San Diego Union-Tribune. “We’ll have to work to get cranes and capital improvements on our terminal.”