Taipei: Kaohsiung Harbor management and a couple of shipping companies (APL and Yang Ming) stand accused of falsifying container volumes at the southern Taiwan port and making off with around NT$1.8 billion (US$62m) as bonuses for hitting targets. The crime was said to have been carryied out for over two years.
Kaohsiung Prosecutor's Office searched Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau office and related shipping companies on 28 March. The port might have been off by as much as million boxes in its 2007 10m figure, the prosecutor alleged. Documents were falsified and boxes moved in and out of the port to bump up numbers.
Kaohsiung has slipped a long way down from its third position in 2000 in the global boxport rankings and was fighting it out with Rotterdam last year to hold onto sixth place. Despite nothcing 10m teu for the firt time Kaoohsiung slipped to eighth behind both Rotterdam and Dubai. If box number irregularities are confirmed it could slide further with the likes of Qingdao snapping at its heels. [01/04/08]
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