Shanghai port to supend Maersk venture - paper

SHANGHAI, April 13 (Reuters) - Shanghai International Port (Group) Co (600018.SS) expects slower throughput and profit growth this year and will suspend cooperation with A.P. Moeller-Maersk Group (MAERSKb.CO) to run a container terminal, the China Securities Journal reported on Monday.

Throughput is expected to reach 29 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2009, up 3.6 percent from a year earlier, while profit growth of more than 20 percent seen in the past few years is not likely to be achieved in the future, the newspaper said, quoting its president Chen Xuyuan.

Last year, net profit of China's biggest port operator jumped 26.9 percent to 4.62 billion yuan ($676 million) on a 13.8 percent rise in revenue. Throughput in 2008 grew 7 percent, the newspaper said.

The company signed a framework agreement in September 2006 to buy 40 percent of a container terminal in Zeebrugge, Belgium, built by APM Terminals, part of Moeller-Maersk, and to jointly run the project.

Shanghai International Port has decided to suspend an agreement to run the project with Maersk, Chen said.

($1=6.832 Yuan)