August 31, 2007

China to upgrade grain transport network to reduce costs

China said it would heighten efforts to increase the efficiency of the country's grain networks in anticipation of higher volumes of grain transport in future, the country's top economic planner said Thursday (Aug 30).

It currently takes up to a month for grain to be transported from production regions in the northeastern part of China to the main consumption regions in the south, due to an antiquated network and obsolete loading facilities, the National Development and Reform Commission said.

The agency noted that transport costs account for 20-30 percent of grain prices in China, double that of developed countries.

The agency promised to iron out the inefficiencies and lower grain transport costs by carrying out a series of measures in the next ten years.

These include the upgrading of loading facilities, extension of railroads, addition of carriages, expansion of waterways, and increased shipping containers to reduce waste of grains on the road. The measures would hopefully shorten transport time and save costs.

China's grain transport network would have to handle 260 million tonnes of grains in 2010 and that would increase 7.7 percent to 280 million tonnes by 2015.