HONG KONG — China’s top 20 coastal ports in April began to claw back some of the container volumes lost during the dismal foreign trade recorded in March, even though exports continued to fall in year-over-year comparisons.
In the first four months of the year, the top 20 ports handled 58 million 20-foot containers as more than 15 million boxes crossed the wharves in April alone, according to data supplied by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange. That was 5.2 percent more volume than that recorded in March and up 3.4 percent year-over-year.
Eleven of the top 20 coastal ports each registered a throughput of more than 1.5 million TEUs in the first four months of the year. China Customs data shows that even with the container volumes rising overall, exports fell 6.2 percent in April compared to the same month last year, while imports tumbled 16.1 percent.
The vast majority of China’s container throughput, or 88 percent, is handled by the country’s 10 busiest ports. Of the 58 million TEU throughput in the first four months of the year, 51 million containers were handled by the top 10.
Shanghai continues to lead the way, handling 11.7 million TEUs in the first four months of the year and 3.1 million TEUs in April. That is well ahead of Shenzhen in second place with 7.6 million boxes from January through April and 1.9 million TEUs in April.
The others are Ningbo-Zhoushan, Qingdao, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Dalian, Xiamen, Yingkou and Lianyungang. Suzhou comes in at number 11 with 1.5 million TEUs in the first four months, but the throughput drops off sharply after that to Nantong at number 20 with 230,000 TEUs up to the end of April.
However, the bottom half of the top 20 ports is where the most movement is occurring as the ports develop and jostle for position in a fiercely competitive market. The biggest surprise was Yingkou, the second-largest port in northeast China, which added 504,000 TEUs in April to move up two places to number 9.
In the first quarter, Yingkou under performed in the handling of containers, possibly related to its location in Liaoning Province. The port is less than 124 miles northwest of the border with North Korea, and about 200 nautical miles north of Dalian Port in the Bohai Sea.
But its offering of sea-rail services to Korea and Japan is believed to be boosting container throughput as China aggressively develops rail links via Chongqing and on through Central Asia to Europe.
Another beneficiary of the China-Europe rail link is the port of Lianyungang north of Shanghai, number 10 on the mainland’s port list with a January through April throughput of 1.7 million TEUs. An uninterrupted rail link has been created between Kazakhstan and Liangyungang, giving the Central Asian nation a de facto seaport.
Kazakhstan Railways expects more than 100 container trains to travel from Lianyungang to the Central Asian hub this year and has reported a 15-fold increase in rail volume in the last three years.
Other ports to improve their position in April were Rizhao, Tangshan and Chongqin, and those slipping on the top 20 table were Suzhou, Yantai, Wuhan and Zhongshan.
