BEIJING (Reuters) – Xiamen in southern China will ramp up controls on shipping at its port ahead of a multilateral summit to be held in the city in early September.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Xiamen is gearing up to hold the meeting of so-called BRICS nations that include Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa as well as China, in the three days up to Sept. 5.
The Xiamen Municipal Government said in a notice on Thursday that to ensure safety, flammable cargoes such as oil, chemicals and liquefied natural gas would be barred from entering the port from Aug. 27 to Sept. 6.
It added that ships using high-sulfur fuel would not be allowed into the port from Sept. 1 to Sept. 6.
A Xiamen-based trader said the measures could also disrupt trade in commodities such as steelmaking raw material iron ore. He declined to be identified as he was not authorized to speak with media.
Xiamen’s port is medium-sized, with 209 million tonnes of cargo volumes passing through its waters in 2016.
China has previously shut down factories, limited traffic and the operation of heavy equipment ahead of high-profile diplomatic events like the G20 gathering.
Reporting by Meng Meng and Josephine Mason; Editing by Joseph Radford