HONG KONG: There was no let up for the port of Hong Kong in the month of September as container volumes fell for the 15th consecutive month.
Figures just released by the Hong Kong Port Development Council show a 6.7 percent decline in year-on-year throughput to 1.67 million 20-foot-equivalent units for the month of September. The Kwai Tsing terminals recorded a double-digit decline in throughput of 14.2 percent to 1.2 million TEUs, while the river trade and mid-stream operations saw throughput grow by 21.6 percent to 460,000 TEUs.
On a year-to-date basis, Hong Kong has suffered a cumulative decline of 8.1 percent in throughput to 15.48 million TEUs, with the terminals at Kwai Tsing accounting for 11.86 million of the total and the remaining 3.6 million boxes handled by the river trade and mid-stream portion. Historical data for Hong Kong’s port volumes can be found on JOC.com’s Market Data Hub.
In contrast, September data just released by Cosco Pacific show a 4.4 percent year-over-year increase in throughput at Yantian International Container Terminals in Shenzhen to 1.185 million TEUs. YICT recorded a cumulative increase of 6 percent to 9 million TEUs for the first nine months of the year.
Once the world’s busiest port, Hong Kong’s market share of direct exports has been steadily eroded by the terminals across the border. The last time a positive growth in volumes was recorded was in June of 2014.
Hong Kong is currently the world’s fourth-busiest container port but may be surpassed by Ningbo-Zhoushan this year, which expects its throughput to hit 22 million TEUs.
