Analysis of the case of port co-operation and integration in Liaoning (China)

The current port governance system in China has produced the outstanding pattern of “one port - one city”, which raises the port-cities' enthusiasm in developing their local ports but leads to the serious problem of duplication of similar port projects meanwhile. Consequently, an internecine situation where ports compete with each other fiercely to scramble for more cargoes in the same hinterland is quite common in China. With the slowdown of China's economic growth, the adverse effects resulted by the oversupply of port resources has been even more prominent. Therefore, the necessity of port cooperation and integration has been realized and more attention has been paid to the ways of port cooperation and integration. This paper focuses on the whole process of port cooperation and integration in Liaoning (one of the typical provinces with the fierce port competition in China) to illustrate the motivation and ways of the integration and the corresponding effects. Moreover, the rationality and problems of the way of the cooperation and specialization proposed by the provincial government in terms of systematic optimization is also analyzed. An integration and cooperation scheme, which may realize a systematic optimization of shipping pattern, is also proposed.