Dalian Port (PDA) Co Ltd , which operates China's second-largest oil port, is pondering a domestic stock listing as early as 2009 to fund a capacity expansion, a top executive said on Tuesday.
The firm, which serves PetroChina's giant Daqing oilfield in the country's northeast, plans to build 12 more crude oil storage tanks around its port at Dalian, Liaoning province, with a collective capacity of 1-1.2 million tonnes.
Executive Director Jiang Luning told Reuters in an interview that expansion would need about 1 billion yuan ($140 million), to be paid over 2008 and 2009.
Chinese oil demand is expected to expand 4 to 5 percent in 2008 as the world's second-biggest energy consumer guzzles up crude to fuel its rip-roaring economy.
Rival Ningbo Port Group -- based in the country's top oil shipping destination of Ningbo -- is also considering an A-share listing that could raise as much as $2 billion, as Chinese firms flock to domestic bourses.
"Next year is possible but not definite, because it will depend on the market situation and other factors," Jiang said.
Dalian Port has invested 680 million yuan in 12 oil tanks, with six in operation and another six coming onstream this year.
The corporation is considering tapping China's A-share markets once it fulfills a regulatory requirement by having had three years' operation under its belt, by November. The firm expects to move 10 percent more oil, refined oil and chemicals this year from 2007, when it handled 33.4 million tonnes of related products -- a rise of 5.1 percent.
It also forecast container throughput would rise 20 percent this year, surpassing 18.4 percent growth in 2007, to 3.72 million 20-foot-equivalent units (TEU). ($1=7.160 Yuan) (Reporting by Alison Leung; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree)