WASHINGTON: Underscoring an upturn in container shipping global boxport volumes grew 6.7% in the first half of 2017, and forecast at 6% for the year as a whole by Alphaliner. Survey of over 250 ports by Alphaliner showed containers volumes grew 7.4% in the second quarter having registered 5.9% in Q1 giving an a first half average of 6.7%. “The momentum is expected to continue in the second half, with the latest figures for July also showing very strong figures,” the analyst’s weekly report said. Alphaliner is forecasting full year growth of 6%, the highest since 2011.
South Asia reported the highest rate of throughput growth in the first half with 9.3%, while the key areas of the US and China posted growth rates of 8.2% and 8.4% respectively. In the top 20 largest ports Chinese ports registered the highest growth rates the first half of the year with Ningbo-Zhoushan growing at 14.4% to 12.4m teu, Guangzhou at 11.7% to 9.6m teu, and Hong Kong 10.5% to 10.2m teu. Only two ports in the top 20 registered a drop in volumes in H1 2017 with the Malaysian ports of Klang and Tanjung Pelepas seeing falls of 3.1% (6.3m teu) and 4% to 4.1m teu respectively.
