WASHINGTON: Container throughput at China’s main ports rebounded in July after a poor first half of the year, when volumes at terminals across the country declined compared with last year. The country’s top eight ports handled a combined 13.5 million twenty-foot-equivalent units in July, a rise of just over 4 percent on the same month last year. The relatively healthy July performance takes year-to-date volumes at the top eight ports to 87.8 million TEUs, an increase of 1.7 percent on the first seven months of 2015.
With the exception of Shenzhen, where year-over-year volumes declined by 1.3 percent, all of China’s top eight container ports booked throughput increases during the month, according to figures released by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange.
Throughput at Shanghai, the world’s busiest container port, recovered from a slight decline in first-half year-over-year volumes. The port handled 3.27 million TEUs in July, a 5 percent increase on the same month last year. The other Yangtze River Delta port of Ningbo-Zhoushan, China’s third-busiest port, also had a strong July and booked a 7.7 percent increase in volumes to 1.9 million TEUs.
Throughput at the northeastern Bohai Rim ports of Dalian and Qingdao grew by close to 6 percent at both ports, although year-over-year growth in volumes at Tianjin was largely flat. Xiamen and Guangzhou expanded volumes by 5 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively. China’s smaller ports, including Yingkou, Suzhou, Lianyungang, Rizhao, Fuzhou and Tangshan, were also in positive growth territory, the SSE data show.
Hong Kong’s poor numbers continued unabated in July with year-over-year volumes tumbling 11 percent to 1.6 million TEUs. The decline in boxes handled at the Kwai Tsing terminals was 4.5 percent and the river trade portion of throughput collapsed by nearly 29 percent to just 350,000 TEUs. At 10.8 million TEUs, Hong Kong’s YTD throughput is down by around 10.7 percent.
Data for the mainland’s manufacturing sector showed mixed results in July. The official Purchasing Managers’ Index, which measures activity at state-owned and large enterprises, fell to 49.9 from a reading of 50.0 in June, which is below the 50-point mark that separates growth from contraction. Fewer orders and disrupted business due to flooding in different parts of the country were the reasons behind the contraction, the Statistics Bureau said. The private IHS Markit PMI showed an expansion in activity among small and medium-sized companies. The index reading of 50.6 in the survey was the first positive result since February of 2015.
