BEIJING: Prospects for global demand growth in container ports are are now more optimistic and Chinese market players are moving forward aggressively with high-level purchasing of terminals. In that sense, major shipping mergers and acquisitions are changing the landscape, marking a better future, according to the Global Annual Report on Container Operator Terminals 2017, in its fifteenth year of publication by Drewry.
Drewry’s forecast of demand of container terminal operators is more positive than that reported in last year’s report, showing 4% of CAGR (Annual Composite Growth Rate) adding 152 million TEUs of port transshipment to the total total for 2021. This comes as a consequence of the improvement of port transfer rates in the second half of 2016 and during 2017, in addition to a more positive global economic perspective.