TAIPEI: Southern Taiwan’s Kaohsiung Harbor set a new record of cargo throughput by registering 6.6 percent growth. The NDC cited statistics compiled by the Ministry of Transportation and Commission as saying that cargo throughput of Kaohsiung Harbor totaled 10.59 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). National Development Council (NDC) declared that it ranked as world’s 13th largest port in terms of the amount of container cargo handled.
Last year, China’s Shanghai took the first place in handling marine cargo throughput in the world, followed by Singapore, China’s Shenzhen, Hong Kong, South Korea’s Pusan, Zhoushan Port in China’s Zhejiang province, China’s Qingdao and Guangzhou ports, Dubai of the United Arab Emirates, China’s Tianjin, Holland’s Rotterdam and Malaysia’s Port Klang.
The NDC said that the data showed that China is a formidable emerging power in the global marine cargo industry.
To help Taiwan’s seven commercial harbors take on rising competition from their counterparts, the NDC said, the government is investing a total of NT$64.61 billion (US$2.04 billion) during the 2012-2016 period to strengthen facilities at these ports. The seven ports are: Keelung, Taipei, Taichung, Anping, Kaohsiung, Suao and Hualien. So far, the budget of the harbor upgrade plan has been about 50 percent spent and construction will continue, the council said.
