TIANJIN, April 2 -- The Tianjin Port Group said on Saturday that construction has started on a new dock for handling metals and ore.

The Nanjiang No. 27 dock, costing about 1.41 billion yuan (about 216 million U.S. dollars), is designed to handle 9.8 million tons of cargo every year.

The construction project also includes a 250,000-sq-meter yard at the dock, the Tianjin port said in a statement.

It will be used to handle imports and exports of metal and ore.

The Tianjin port, the world's fourth largest, has more than 100 berths with capacity of 10,000 tons or above. It operates over 120 shipping routes worldwide.