Box traffic at Shanghai may fall 14% this year

 Container throughput at Shanghai port this year may drop 14% from 2008, Wang Hongquan, vice director of Shanghai Transport and Port Authority, said yesterday, reports China Daily. The city's container throughput in 2009 will be about 24m teu, according to a preliminary estimate by the port authority, lower than last year's 28m teu. Shanghai was the world's second-busiest container port in 2008, behind Singapore with 29.9m teu.

Container throughput in the first 11 months this year was 22.6m teu, down 12.28% from the same period last year, according to the statistics by Shanghai International Port Group. The port handled a total of 296m tons of dry bulk goods in the first 11 months, down 14% from a year ago.

Wang also said that Waigaoqiao Port will complete the conversion of its 180 cranes from diesel to electric power by the end of the year to reduce emissions.

Source: Port News