China operators post sharp rise in box volume

China Merchants Holdings (International) and Cosco Pacific have posted significant double-digit throughput increases in the first four months of the year.

The rapidly improving container volumes have led to some bold statements by the Hong Kong-listed port operators.

A China Merchants spokesman said the four-month throughput indicated the recovery was underway and he predicted the growth in boxes handled by the company would grow by up to 15 percent this year.

Over at Cosco Pacific, Xu Minjie, vice chairman and managing director of the mainland's largest port operator, told the Standard that while it would be hard for throughput to return to its 2008 peak this year, double-digit growth was possible.

He was speaking after Cosco Pacific saw container throughput grow by 19.5 percent in the first four months.

"The company set a 10 percent container throughput growth target at the beginning of this year," said Xu. "Now it appears that we can do better than that."

China Merchants announced that total container throughput for ports in Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, where China Merchants has investments, rose 22 percent year-on-year in the first four months.

It’s West Shenzhen terminals saw growth of 30 percent compared to a year earlier, reported the South China Morning Post.

The port operator said it was confident throughput growth could reach between 10 and 15 percent this year.

In the first four months, the mainland's international trade grew 42.7 percent this year to US$856 billion.

Source: Cargo News Asia