Mainland container leasing and port investor Cosco Pacific is in talks with China��s Ningbo Port about investing in a new container terminal, newspapers reported Sunday.

The port of Ningbo, one of busiest ports on the mianland, said in November it planned a US$1.05 billion expansion with three Hong Kong firms to build up to nine container berths.

The port, in the wealthy eastern Zhejiang Province, declined to name the partners but said the Hong Kong firms would cover half the investment and the city of Ningbo would supply the rest of the funding.

"We are interested in all important ports in China," the South China Morning Post quoted Wei Jiafu, chief executive of COSCO's parent firm, China Ocean Shipping Group, as saying on the sidelines of an international logistics forum in Shenzhen over the weekend.

��It is the Hong Kong-based company, COSCO Pacific, which is involved in the discussions."

Trade in China, the world��s seventh-largest economy, is booming as multinationals set up factories to tap cheap labor to produce export goods and as the country gorges on imported resources and finished goods.

Ningbo Port Group already runs port joint ventures with Asia's richest businessman, Li Ka-shing, via his ports-to-telecom conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa.

Statistics show that mainland��s trade with the rest of the world continue to rise, boosting shipping demand.

Source: Shenzhen Daily-Agencies