The Impact of Port Infrastructure on Port Handling Capacity in China

Port handling capacity is a key indicator of the development of port economy. There are numerous factors that influencing port handling capacity, the port infrastructure and development play a prominent role among which. In this paper, to examine what are the factors and how they influence the port handling capacity in China, we employed panel data from China´s 14 ports between 1997 and 2006. The results suggest that port infrastructure do affect port handling capacity in China, on which the development of port infrastructures has a long-run effect in particular. Furthermore, quay length, integrated port traffic capacity and number of port berths for 10,000 ton-class or larger ships, increase port handling capacity by 12%, 50% and 91% respectively, while the influence of number of port berths is limited and not significant.