The Guangzhou city government said Friday (Feb. 13) that it would invite overseas investors to join the construction and operation of a 2.65 billion yuan (US$320 million) container terminal in Nansha, its new industrial zone.

The terminal, or the second phase of the mega Nansha port project, will be tendered in March, said Chen Wanxiong, vice director of the Communications Commission of Guangzhou Municipality.

It will have four 100,000-ton berths with annual total capacity of 1.2-1.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs),Chen told reporters in a press conference in Hong Kong.

Construction was expected to be complete at the end of 2007 or early 2008.

"Several Hong Kong terminal operators, such as Hutchison and Wharf, have visited the Nansha port," he said.

Hutchison Whampoa, which is controlled by Asia's richest businessman Li Ka-shing, is the world's largest container port operator and a major investor in the Hong Kong port facility.

Wharf's Modern Terminals Ltd. is the second-largest container operator in Hong Kong and has actively invested in terminals in Shenzhen.

Chen also said Nansha port, which could eventually develop into a deep-water port cluster with 50 berths, would need dredging every year to make it deep enough to cater for new generations of big containers. He estimated the cost for dredging at 12 million yuan per year.

The first phase of the Nansha port with four 50,000-ton berths mainly for bulk cargo ships will start operations in September.