Despite the challenge from the ever-expanding Pearl River Delta (PRD) ports and the global financial tsunami, Hong Kong kept its position as the third busiest box port and recorded a volume increase.
Throughput rose by 2.1%, slightly higher than the 1.9% increase in 2007.
Operated by top-tier operators, the city’s flagship terminals in the Kwai Chung-Tsing Yi basin lifted 17.7m teu last year, representing 72% of total throughput. The remaining 28% was handled at mid-stream sites, River Trade Terminal, public cargo working areas, buoys, anchorages and other wharves.
Hong Kong suffered a double-digit percentage volume decline in the first five months in 2009 and a full-year decline is expected.
In response to competition from mainland China ports and the economic downturn, some operators have lowered container handling charges. In April 2009, the city’s Marine Department proposed a reduction in its port and arrival clearance charges, an annual tonnage charges cap, an officer licence fee and the waiving of certain types of registration fees from this July.
The government has reignited plans to construct Container Terminal 10 (CT10), even though its transport official admitted there was a proliferation of port facilities in the PRD. A HK$23.7m (US$3m) feasibility study being carried out by Maunsell Consultants Asia is due for completion in early 2011. A site on the south-west side of Tsing Yi, close to the existing container terminal nine, has been identified as the preferred location for the facility.
Observers have repeatedly warned that CT10 would not necessarily raise the competitiveness of Hong Kong, as the 19m teu capacity of the existing terminals has not yet been utilised.
