The new owner, Tongling Chemical Industry Group is itself a major user of the port and so has its own commercial interest. Mr Wu said, in talks with Yangtze Business Services, that it was unrealistic to expect it to be impartial and he is concerned that, under new ownership, the port may function more like a private operator with some additional services for third parties than as a normal common-user terminal.
This is despite the sale being conditional upon a cash injection of some $737,000 that will be used over the following two years to expand container capacity and double cargo-handling capacity to 10m tons in line with the government’s plan, plus an investment of at least $300m to build a bonded centre and Henggang Logistics Centre.