Nansha volumes down, a sign of South China slowing

Container traffic is slowing precipitously through South China, a point emphasized by statistics released Wednesday by the Guangzhou Port Group.

GPG said its total throughput declined 3.6 percent in August and a further 5.4 percent in September, to 598,000 TEUs in September. Nearly 75 percent of GPG's volume comes from the mega-container terminals it jointly owns in Nansha, a terminal complex on the west side of the Pearl River that opened in 2006.

GPG has stakes in both terminals at Nansha, one with China Shipping and the other with COSCO Pacific and APM Terminals. The China Shipping-GPG terminal, which opened first, has seen volume slide 11.8 percent and 9.6 percent in August and September, versus the same months in 2007. That's after volume grew at a healthy double-digit clip through July.

The newer terminal, run jointly by COSCO Pacific and APM, is still seeing growth relative to 2007 totals, but that's largely because the terminal only opened last year and 2007 volume was low. Raw volume through the second terminal has been slowing throughout 2008, from a high of 205,000 TEUs in May to 134,000 TEUs in September. Those 134,000 TEUs still represent sizable growth compared to September 2007 (179 percent according to GPG, while COSCO last week pegged the volume and growth at 145,000 TEUs and 201 percent). But the second terminal was growing more than 500 percent per month throughout spring and early summer.

It also appears much of the growth has been at the expense of the first terminal, whose raw volume slid from 475,000 TEUs in June to 286,000 TEUs in August. Volume somewhat rose in September to 308,000, but that was still 9.6 percent lower than September 2007. Another factor is that growth through terminals in Shenzhen has slowed, as Nansha has provided another option for shippers in the Pearl River Delta region.

GPG said the recent declines are due to a range of issues -- namely slowing production due to the Olympics in August, antismuggling crackdowns, and sagging global demand due to economic pressures. 

Source: American Shipper