Orient Overseas might invest in Shanghai project

Orient Overseas International Ltd, a shipping company controlled by the family of Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa (董建華), will probably bid to invest in Shanghai's US$16 billion Yangshan port.

"We, like everybody else, would be interested," Tung Chee Chen, chairman of Orient Overseas and a younger brother of Tung Chee-hwa, said in an interview in Singapore.

"It would be a very important gateway" to eastern China, he said.

He said Orient Overseas and Chinese authorities have "been in touch" and formal talks could begin next year.

Orient Overseas International joins competitors such as PSA Corp of Singapore and tycoon Li Ka-shing's (李嘉誠) Hutchison Whampoa in bidding to invest in the new port. The Shanghai government has said Orient Overseas International was in talks for the project.

China is building the deepwater facility 28km from Shanghai to allow bigger container vessels to use its docks as trade as the nation's financial center expands.

Orient Overseas International's Tung also said the company is ``exploring the potential'' of investing in port projects in the northern Qingdao Province.

"Conditions have to be right," Tung said. He was visiting Singapore to take part in a christening ceremony for a container vessel.