The drops in volume were especially felt in key regions such as the Yangtze River Delta, where volumes fell 12.3% to 785,300 teu from 895,400 teu previously and the Southeast Coast, which had previously outperformed other regions as some of its ports were in a ramping up phase last year.
Among the Southeast Coast ports, Jinjiang saw volume plunge by half to 19,300 teu and Xiamen saw throughput fall 10.3% to 81,700 teu. Overall the region saw throughput fall 9.0% to 336,700 teu.
Expectedly, with the continuing slump at the port of Hong Kong, volume at Pearl River Delta ports fell 1.6% overall, with Cosco-HIT and Guangzhou South China Oceangate being the hardest hit, falling 10% and 6.3% respectively.
The only bright spot left within the group appears to be the northern port cluster in the Bohai Rim, which not only has the highest throughput among the group but also saw the only rise in volumes. January throughput for this region rose 3.7% to 2.23m teu. The highest volume port, Qingdao, continued to power away, with throughput rising 6.0% to 1.54m teu.
Meanwhile, Cosco Pacific's investment in overseas ports also seems to have paid off for them, with volumes here rising 6.3% to 830,00 teu, ironically, mainly on the back of a 23.8% rise in volumes to 131,800 teu at Cosco-PSA Terminal in Singapore, despite the fact that as whole Singapore’s container throughput was down 10.4% in the first month of the year.
The group's investment in Piraeus also continues to do well despite recent labour issues, with a 5% rise in volumes to 251,800 teu in January.
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