BEIJING, June 15 -- Eurogate, Europe's largest container terminal logistics network, has pledged to enhance its co-operation with Chinese enterprises in a bid to push forward international trade exchanges between ports.

　　Eurogate representatives are expected to visit major harbo ur cities such as Dalian, Tianjin, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Qingdao and Ningbo and to negotiate with about 700 local companies on strategic co-operation, said Emanuel Schiffer, the company's president.

　　"The Chinese market is huge and attractive to Europe including Germany, and Eurogate will put more and more efforts into the local market in the future," Schiffer told China Daily.

　　"Eurogate expects to help Chinese manufacturers that are muscling their way into overseas markets export and distribute their products in a more efficient way," Schiffer said.

　　The world container traffic market is enjoying an annual growth rate of 15 per cent, half of which comes from Asia, especially China.

　　"China has become a very big contributor in terms of promoting Europe's containerized traffic industry. More than 30 per cent of Eurogate's business comes from the Chinese market," Schiffer said.

　　"As a matter of fact, Eurogate has all along kept close business relationships with Chinese major enterprises."

　　Eurogate has established long-term strategic partnerships with China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company (COSCO), China Shipping Group and Sinotrans Limited.

　　Eurogate is mainly responsible for providing the firms with services in Europe.

　　COSCO is one of Eurogate Container Terminal Bremerhaven's largest partners. In Europe, Eurogate has handled about 900,000 twenty-foot equipment units (TEUs) from COSCO, of which 75,000 are exported via the port of Bremerhaven.

　　In addition, in the autumn of 2006, 2,000 cars produced by Shenyang Brilliance Automotive Co will be shipped to European countries. E. H. Harms, co-run by BLG and Eurogate, has become the exclusive logistics provider for Brilliance in Europe.

　　Apart from providing services to the domestic companies, Eurogate has also introduced high-tech equipment from China. Eurogate has installed gantry cranes from Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery, a leading global gantry crane manufacturer, greatly improving productivity.

　　Eurogate, founded in September 1999 and headquartered in Bremen, Germany, was created through the merging of Eurokai-Hamburg and BLG-Bremerhaven, which each hold 50 per cent of the interest.

　　It operates nine container terminals with Contship Italia. Eurogate, with its container handling volume reaching 11.5 million TEUs by the end of 2004, has become the largest container handling company with terminal facilities in Germany, Italy and Portugal.

　　Eurogate container Terminal Bremerhaven currently covers an area of 2 million square metres with its quay length reaching 3,040 metres. It has a handling capacity of 3.4 million TEUs.

　　Eurogate also plans to inject more than 380 million euros (US$456 million) by the end of 2008 into the ports of Hamburg and Bremerhaven. Bremerhaven's handling capacity is expected to reach 6 million TEUs by then, according to Schiffer.

　　"Thanks to its advanced facilities and good geographic conditions, Bremerhaven could offer fast and reliable transport services to the final destination irrespective of the mode of transport and it is the only European port that is not threatened by congestion," Schiffer said.

　　Furthermore, Bremerhaven is the major hub that leads to Baltic Sea areas and Russia.

　　"Thirty per cent of Chinese products are exported to these areas, therefore, through Bremerhaven, Chinese companies can export products to these areas in an efficient way," Schiffer said.

　　(Source: China Daily)