Kaohsiung slides further down the rankings

Taipei: Container throughput posted by Taiwan's Kaohsiung port during the first half of 2007 grew 4.3% over the same period of 2006 to 4,975,805 teu. During the same period, Rotterdam, which ranked the 7th largest in box handling volume among the world's container ports in 2006, handled 5.3 million teu, reversing slots with Kaohsiung edging up one slot to 6th, the fist time this decade that a non-Asian boxport has entered the top six. Dubai port, which ranked eighth in 2006, already handled 4.17 million teu up to May 2007, suggesting the possibility that Dubai will also overtake Kaohsiung for the entirety of 2007.
Both Hamburg and Qingdao ports are also increasing throughput and could soon overhaul politically hamstrung Kaohsiung too. [31/07/07]