Caofeidian: A new important steel center under construction in China

Caofeidian, which was formerly just an unknown seaside district of Tangshan city in northern China, is developing into a famous industrial port specialized in steel making, logistics and related industries. As the “number one project” of Hebei province and an important step in China's national steel industry relocation strategy, construction work at Caofeidian is being carried out in thorough fashion under the careful supervision of both the local and central governments. According to the strategic planning for the area, Caofeidian will contribute greatly to territorial economic development in northern China, especially to the structural optimization of industries in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area. Due to Caofeidian's importance, President of China Hu Jintao paid a visit here on July 29, 2006, and declared that Caofeidian should be built as a good example of scientific development with a high jumping-off point and a high-quality level. Currently, among the numerous local infrastructure projects, part of them has been completed while more are still under construction or in the public-bidding phase. At the same time, thousands of people are migrating here, who will become the future residents of this new port. So far, over ten thousand workers from Shougang have been drawn here because of the relocation of their factories . As the future biggest deep water port in northern China, Caofeidian's functions will mainly include: Steelmaking For the purpose of environment protection and structural optimization of industries, one of China's big steelmakers, Shougang, is moving here from the capital Beijing. On Feb. 18, 2005, China's National Development and Reform Committee officially agreed to Shougang's relocation from Beijing to Tangshan and to its restructuring with the local steel industry with a view to building a big allied steel enterprise of advanced world level. On Oct. 22 2005, the new steelmaker was officially established. Backed by rich iron ore supply-imported by seaway and by unmined inland resources of 4.4 billion tons in east Hebei province, the realization of Caofeidian's planned destiny as an important Chinese steelmaking base is just a question of time. Logistics As a part of Tangshan port, the Caofeidian port area has been put into use from the end of 2005. It is an excellent natural deep water port with a deepest sea-route of 36 meters which means that over 250,000 tons of cargo ship may berth here. It also has capacity for the construction of more than 70 deep water anchoring berths. It is estimated that the annual cargo handled in the Caofeidian port area will reach 500 million tons. In Nov. 2005, two iron ore piers each of 250,000 ton capacity were completed and opened to shipping. According to approved plans, 16 coal piers each of 50-100,000 ton capacity will be completed in two phases before 2009. Electric power and chemical industry Due to its rich coal resources, plans have been drawn up to build big power stations in the area which will supply northern China. Besides iron ore and coal, lots of oil and natural gas will also be shipped, stored and processed here in the future. Caofeidian has also been earmarked as a future distribution center for chemical products. Due to its importance, Caofeidian is being called “the Amsterdam of the Orient” by more and more people. During Jan-July this year alone, completed fixed assets investment here reached over RMB 4.9 billion (USD 616 million). The new steelmaking and logistics center here is well on its way towards completion.