THE Guangzhou Port Group plans to dredge a 70-kilometre navigation channel from Nansha to the deepwater west of Aizhou Island, covering the Koumen channel, the Dahao channel and the Linding channel.
Guangzhou to dredge 70-kilometre ship channel from NanshaTHE Guangzhou Port Group plans to dredge a 70-kilometre navigation channel from Nansha to the deepwater west of Aizhou Island, covering the Koumen channel, the Dahao channel and the Linding channel.
The plan is to have a navigation channel 380 metres wide and 17 metres deep fit to handle two-way traffic of 18,000-TEU ships.
A total of 65.2 million cubic metres of soil will be dredged, part of which will be unloaded at the temporary ocean deposit area while another part will be reclaimed to Longxue Island.
The total investment of the project will be US$474 million, $5 million of which will be for environmental protection, representing 1.03 per cent of the total.
Currently, Guangzhou can handle one-way navigation of 8,000-TEU ships or 120,000 dwt bulk carriers at high tide, as well as two-way navigation of 4,000-TEU ships at low tide.
However, ships more than 50,000 dwt can only navigate one way in the channel from the Nansha port area to the Pearl River estuary.
Last year, Guangzhou port handled 16.6 million TEU, up 7.1 per cent compared to the previous year, the fifth busiest China container port. Container traffic in the first four months of the year rose seven per cent year on year to nearly 5.3 million TEU.
