Japan to Merge Ports

On October, 30 the Japanese government confirmed implementation of a proposal to merge the neighbouring ports of Kobe, Amagasaki-Nishinomiya-Ashiya and Osaka into a single entity to be called Hanshin Port.

According to Fairplay, the objective of the merger is to make the central Japanese ports more attractive to vessel calls by reducing the cost of switching between berths in the same area of Osaka Bay. Once the unification is completed on 1 December, ships will only have to pay one set of port and customs dues.

In total the new super port will have an annual container throughput of at least 4.3 mn TEU, which will instantly make it Japan’s busiest and largest container port ahead of Tokyo, Yokohama and Nagoya.

Source: Seanews