China's Yantai Port group co-invests in Guinea bauxite port

China's Yantai Port Group, together with three other firms in China, Singapore, and Guinea, invested an undisclosed amount in the port in Boke, Guinea, in West Africa to further develop Guinea's bauxite trade.

The three companies are Shandong Weiqiao Pioneering Group, Singapore's Winning International Group, and Guinea's Boke Mining Company.

The port's first berth is scheduled to open on 20 July, and Yantai Port Group will be in charge of the construction and operation, local media reported on 14 April.

The port project aims to build two bauxite berths, one heavy cargo berth, as well as loading belts.

According to the local media, the port's annual capacity is designed to handle 10 million tonnes, and is expected to rise to 30 million tonnes per year by 2017.

The project started in November 2014, and over 300 workers have been sent to Guinea from Yantai until early April. Once completed, the bauxite mined by the Boke Mining Company will be shipped by Winning International Group's fleet to Yantai, and transferred to the depots of Weiqiao Pioneering Group.

Currently, Yantai is the largest bauxite port in China, and has handled 77.3% of China's imported bauxite in 2014. The port aimed to build an integrated logistics of bauxite transport and has developed the No. 318 bauxite berth in the west port of Yantai, Boke port in Guinea, terminal project of Hongda Winning Alumina in Indonesia, and a bauxite project in Kuantan port, Malaysia.

Yantai handled a total of 236 million tonnes cargos in 2014, up 7% year on year (y/y), and its fertiliser imports amounted to over 7 million tonnes, surging 72% y/y becoming the world's largest fertiliser port.