Seatrade Maritime is part of the Informa Markets Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Hong Kong October volumes jump 12% to 1.7m teu

Hong Kong October volumes jump 12% to 1.7m teu
Throughput growth at the port of Hong Kong finally turned back into positive territory in October, rising 12.4% to 1.67m teu.

This was however off a very low base from the year before when throughput had plunged by nearly a fifth to 1.48m teu compared to 1.83m teu in October 2014.

Volumes at the main Kwai Tsing terminals rose 8.6% to 1.33m teu while at the non-Kwai Tsing terminals throughput spiked 30.6% to 340,000 teu. This was once again off a very low base of 260,000 teu in October 2015, when throughput had plunged 40% from the previous year.

This has had a positive effect on the cumulative figures, with the negative growth in year-to-date throughput moderating to 5.9% with 15.91m teu handled so far.

Coming off the low bases in the remaining two months of the year in the previous year, when the long slump in the container industry was starting to take root, it is likely that Hong Kong port will continue to see continued monthly growth in November and December, resulting in a flat to very small overall growth in throughput for 2016.

However if the monthly totals are the same as last year's with minimal growth or even contraction during the typically slow month of December, annual growth could slide as much as 5% for the year. This would add to the long, slow decline of the key Pearl River Delta port.