WASHINGTON: The Japanese ports of Nagoya and Yokkaichi are establishing a company to operate the port’s container terminals and improve their competitiveness against the major transshipment hub of Busan. Nagoya is Japan’s third-largest container port for foreign trade and Yokkaichi is ninth, according to the Japanese transport ministry. The tie-up is the third such deal among Japanese container ports since 2014. The new company will be set up around May and initially capitalized at 30 million yen ($265,000), the Nagoya Port Authority and the Yokkaichi Port Authority announced in a joint statement. The new company has yet to be named. The Nagoya Port Authority and the Yokkaichi Port Authority will hold equity stakes in the new container terminal operator of 65 percent and 35 percent, respectively. They said they will seek private-sector investment in the joint venture company to strengthen its financial base. Both ports are on Ise Bay and the new company “will become the Ise Bay’s only port operator,” the port authorities said.
Through their operational integration, the Port of Nagoya and the Port of Yokkaichi will seek to boost their international competitiveness to better compete with major rival ports in Asia while cutting costs. In 2015, the latest year for which official ministry figures are available, the Port of Nagoya handled about 2.47 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in foreign trade — 1.29 million TEUs in exports and 1.18 million TEUs in imports. The Port of Yokkaichi handled about 172,000 TEUs in foreign — 93,000 TEUs in exports and 79,000 TEUs in imports.
The Port of Nagoya retained its status as the biggest export hub by value among the nation’s airports and seaports for the fifth consecutive year in 2016 despite a decline in overseas shipments. Nagoya’s exports totaled 10.7 trillion yen in 2016, down 6.3 percent from 2015 and marking the first drop in seven years, according to figures from Nagoya Customs. The first ports to form joint venture operating companies were Kobe and Osaka in 2014. Yokohama and Kawasaki did likewise in January 2016. These moves are part of the Japanese government’s policy of enhancing major domestic container ports’ international competitiveness to generate economic growth.
