Port Of Dalian, China

The Port of Dalian is located at the southern end of the Liaodong Peninsula on the Yellow Sea in southern Liaoning Province in northeastern China. About 470 kilometers southeast of Beijing and 80 nautical miles north-northeast, across the Yellow Sea, from the Port of Yantai, the Port of Dalian has an ice-free natural deep-water harbor. It occupies an important strategic position at the entrance to the Gulf of Chihli, commanding maritime access to the Port Tianjin. In 2002, almost 2.2 million people lived in the Port of Dalian.
A busy industrial center, the Port of Dalian is the biggest shipping center in China, and it supports a large fishing fleet. In addition to its port, Dalian is an important rail terminus with direct access to the nation's highway network and a major international airport with regular flights to Japan and Korea. The Port of Dalian is home to ship builders and locomotive manufacturers, and it has a thriving manufacturing sector that produces machines, chemicals, electronics, textiles, and petroleum products. High technology, finance, and services are also growing in importance to the local economy.

Dalian Port Corporation (PDA) Limited is the port authority for the Port of Dalian (Chinese). PDA was established in 2005 and listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong in 2006. With 43 investee companies and two branches, the PDA is involved in four major businesses: the oil/liquefied chemicals terminal and related logistics, the container terminal and related logistics, the automobile terminal and related logistics, and value-added services for the Port of Dalian.

In 2008, the Port of Dalian handled 185 million tons of cargo, including 4.5 million TEUs of containerized cargo. The Port of Dalian contains six major cargo-handling centers: the oil and liquid chemical distribution center, the container trans-shipment center, the food transit center, the professional roll-off vehicle and tourist center, the groceries and coal transshipment center, and the distribution center for mines in the region.

The Port of Dalian is accessed through four major channels. The Fairway is 180 meters wide and 9 meters deep. The Newport Fairway Oil Terminal is access through a natural waterway that is 300 meters wide and 17.5 meters deep. The Dayaowan Channel is a natural waterway that is 210 meters wide and 10.7 meters deep. The Dalian Bay Waterway Ferry channel is a natural waterway that is 100 meters wide and 9.5 meters deep. The Port of Dalian is protected by nine breakwaters with a total length of seven thousand meters. Tidal variations range from a low of .66 meters to a high of 4.6 meters.

The Port of Dalian is the most important and busiest container center in Northeast China and the second biggest container port in the country. Over 90% of Northeast China's foreign container trade moves through the Port of Dalian. The Dalian Container Terminal Company Limited is a joint venture between the Dalian Port Group and a Singapore foreign trade joint venture container terminal company. The pier is equipped with the world's most advanced operating system, giving the terminal capacity to handle 230 million containers.

Dalian Harbor Container Terminal Company Limited (DPCM) operates six container berths with capacity for 300 million containers. The DPCM has been recognized for implementing the best scientific and technological innovations in a Chinese container terminal. The Dalian International Container Terminals Limited (DICT) is a Sino-foreign joint venture that handles, transports, stores, warehouses, and moves containers. Supporting mostly domestic trade containers, the Dalian Dagang China Shipping Container Terminal Company Limited (DDCT.CS) is a joint venture between DPCM, the China Shipping Group, the Dalian Port Group, and PSA investment company.

The Port of Dalian is also the biggest port in Northeast China for storage of oil and liquid chemicals with a modern 300-thousand-ton berth for crude oil with capacity for 57 million tons that can accommodate the largest oil tankers.

The Port of Dalian's ore distribution center serves northern China. It is equipped with a 300-thousand-ton capacity ore terminal and China's largest and most modern ore wharf with alongside depth of an amazing 23 meters. The terminal has storage capacity for six million tons of ore cargoes.

The Port of Dalian is the most competitive food transit center in Northeast China, with 80-thousand-ton bulk grain berths and hundreds of bulk grain silos with capacity to store 800 thousand tons.

The Port of Dalian is the main roll-on/roll-off passenger car distribution center for Northeast Asia, moving over 600 million vehicles per year, with capacity for 760 thousand vehicles per year.