WASHINGTON: Cosco Shipping Ports started the year on a good note with overall throughput rising 7% in January to 8.38m teu from 7.83m teu in the previous corresponding period. Gains were once again led by the overseas segment with volumes rising 38% to 1.41m teu from 1.02m teu previously. Meanwhile the key Bohai RIm and Yangtze River Delta regions also performed well with volume gains of 3% and 2% respectively. Throughput rose to 2.76m teu from 2.68m teu at the Bohai Rim region in January, while at the Yangtze River Delta, volumes rose to 1.62m teu from 1.58m teu in January 2016.
Even the Pearl River Delta region, which includes the group’s Hong Kong terminals, which had been struggling all though last year managed to turn in positive growth in throughput, with volumes rising 3% to 2.16m teu from 2.10m teu. COSCO-HIT terminal in particular turned in a stellar 21% rise in throughput for January. The slowly growing ports on the Southeast coast grew 4% to 349,100 teu from 336,700 teu previously. And the single port on the Southwest coast started the year slowly, being the only port to see negative growth, with throughput falling 9% to 93,100 teu from 102,700 teu previously.
