NANTONG city, on the estuary of the Yangtze in Jiangsu province, is aiming to build up a terminal cluster at the Nantong Binhai Park, a harbour-front and industrial park at Tongzhou Bay, Xinhua reports.

Tongzhou Bay has deepwater coastline of 150 kilometres, which can accommodate one hundred 50,000- to 100,000-tonne ships and ten 300,000-tonne berths, according to Shi Hongjie, vice director of Nantong Binhai Park administration committee.

"Tongzhou has the most unexploited resources for port development in China", said Shi.

Statistics from the preliminary study that to build a 300,000-tonne navigational channel at Tongzhou, the dredging distance need only be 20 kilometres and have a depth three metres, which is the least of the dredging projects on the northern Yangtze River.

Besides, by seaside reclamation, a land area of over 400 square metres can be formed at Tongzhou Bay for waterfront industries. The city has now started reclamation and terminal construction projects at Tongzhou Bay.