China's Dalian port plans 2009 listing

Dalian: Dalian Port (PDA) Co Ltd, which operates China's second-largest oil port, is pondering a domestic stock listing as early as 2009 to fund a capacity expansion, a top executive said.

The firm, which serves PetroChina's giant Daqing oilfield in the country's northeast, plans to build 12 more crude oil storage tanks around its port at Dalian, Liaoning province, with a collective capacity of 1-1.2 million tonnes.

Executive director Jiang Luning said expansion would need about one billion yuan ($140 million), to be paid over 2008 and 2009.

Demand

Chinese oil demand is expected to expand four to five per cent in 2008 as the world's second-biggest energy consumer guzzles up crude to fuel its rip-roaring economy.

Rival Ningbo Port Group - based in the country's top oil shipping destination of Ningbo - is also considering an A-share listing that could raise as much as $2 billion, as Chinese firms flock to domestic bourses. "Next year is possible but not definite, because it will depend on the market situation and other factors," Jiang said.

Dalian Port has invested 680 million yuan in 12 oil tanks, with six in operation and another six coming onstream this year.

The corporation is considering tapping China's A-share markets once it fulfils a regulatory requirement by having had three years' operation under its belt, by November.

The firm expects to move 10 per cent more oil, refined oil and chemicals this year from 2007, when it handled 33.4 million tonnes of related products - a rise of 5.1 per cent.