WASHINGTON: COSCO Shipping Ports posted an 18.3 percent increase in monthly terminal throughput for September 2017 compared to the same period a year prior, according to recent data from the terminal operator arm of China’s COSCO Shipping. Total TEUs in September increased from 6.5 million TEUs to 7.7 million TEUs year-over-year, and year-to-date volumes jumped 13.5 percent compared to the same period last year. The volume increases were driven primarily by overseas investments and home-based markets such as the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta regions, COSCO Ports said.
COSCO Shipping Ports’ overseas terminals saw monthly throughput rise 47 percent to 1.5 million TEUs from the previous September 1 million TEUs. Volumes at Kumport in Turkey, in which COSCO Ports has a partial stake, spiked 121.7 percent, and at European terminals in Antwerp and Zeebrugge volumes rose substantially at 39.6 percent and 48.1 percent, respectively. Volumes at Busan Port Terminal saw an 80.5 percent increase, from 159,800 TEUs to 288,300 TEUs in September. Bohai Rim had the slowest growth of 6.5 percent to 1.4 million TEUs while the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta rose 7.6 percent and 18.3 percent, or 1.6 million TEUs and 2.6 million TEUs, respectively.
