HONG KONG: China’s top 20 container ports have handled more than 120 million TEUs this year until the end of August, but slowing export demand has seen little growth across most of the major ports including several year-over-year volume declines.
Shanghai throughput was flat compared to August last year as the world’s busiest container port handled 3.15 million TEUs, while the mainland’s second largest port saw 2.27 million boxes crossing its wharves, down 3 percent year-over-year, according to data from the Shanghai Shipping Exchange.
Shenzhen’s terminals are heavily exposed to foreign trade and any slowdown in demand from the major markets in the U.S. and Europe is felt here. Curiously, the South China port of Guangzhou, not far up the Pearl River from Shenzhen, saw its throughput climbing a healthy 5 percent in August. Nansha is counted as part of Guangzhou Port and it is a Maersk Line hub port, which is pushing up the throughput.
The Ningbo-Zhoushan port complex, China’s third largest, continues to grow its volumes and was up 3 percent in August to 1.8 million TEUs. In 2014, the port just south of Shanghai saw its throughput rising 12 percent over 2013.
Qingdao north of Shanghai handled 5 percent more containers than in August last year, and the fellow Bohai Rim port of Dalian was up 2 percent year-over-year. However, the August throughput in the region was dragged down by a 28 percent decline in containers handled by the blast-affected port of Tianjin.
The early August explosions brought the port to a standstill and although container operations during the month were not as badly affected as bulk and energy shipments, the SSE data reveals the impact of the slowdown of operations. Such are the numbers of boxes flowing through the port that in August, Tianjin handled 411,000 TEUs less than in July.
Interestingly, the inland port of Chongqing, high up the Yangtze River, saw its container throughput falling by 15 percent in August year-over-year to 74,000 TEUs. Chongqing is the export manufacturing hub of central China and the foreign trade slowdown is impacting volumes.
The fastest-growing China port in August was Yingkou in the Bohai Rim region not far from Dalian. While the port is a bulk and auto hub it is also the major import gateway for northern China and Mongolia, and in August container volumes reached 524,000 TEUs, a year-over-year increase of 29 percent.
