WASHINGTON: Cosco Shipping Ports continues to rack up good growth in throughput, with overall volumes rising 9.5% to 8.60m teu in March from 7.85m teu in the previous corresponding period. However, some weak spots are emerging, with the key Bohai Rim region continuing the anaemic performance it has seen since the beginning of the year, with throughput falling 1.9% to 2.73m teu from 2.78m teu previously. Notably, Qingdao Qianwan Container Terminal, the biggest terminal in the cluster saw throughput fall 5.4% to just over 1.4m teu. Meanwhile the Yangtze River Delta ports came back strongly in March, with throughput rising 8.2% to 1.72m teu from 1.58m teu previously. The Southeast Coast and Southwest Coast ports also continued on their ramp-up growth track with the former seeing throughput rise 10.9% to 396,300 teu and the latter seeing its sole asset of Guangxi Qinzhou International Container Terminal spiking 15.8% to 111,900 teu. Cosco Shipping Port’s overseas terminals also saw stellar stellar growth, rising 45.1% to 1.54m teu from 1.06m teu previously, suggesting global trade is picking up and the group has chosen the right international ports to invest in.
Finally, the group’s Pearl River Delta ports also recovered strongly to post 6.8% growth with throughput of 2.1m teu from 1.96m teu previously. The Hong Kong terminals in particular saw spectacular growth of 56% and 45% for Cosco-HIT Terminal and Asia Container Terminal respectively. This was reflected in the Port of Hong Kong’s overall figures, where March overall throughput rose 17.1% to 1.78m teu from 1.51m teu in the previous corresponding period. The main Kwai Tsing terminals saw volumes rise 18.4% to 1.39m teu from 1.17m teu previously. The non-Kwai Tsing terminals meanwhile also saw throughput rise 12.6% to 380,000 teu from 337,000 teu previously. After a slow start in the traditional Lunar New Year lull in January this year, the port has so far notched up two straight months of double-digit growth so far.
