Shanghai still No. 2, but grows 7%

The Shanghai Port saw container volume grow 7 percent in 2008, to more than 28 million TEUs.

   The port did not, however, grow enough to overtake the Port of Singapore as the world's busiest in terms of container throughput. The growth was also markedly lower than the 20.4 percent hike in volume seen in 2007 for Shanghai.

   But the port will likely soon overtake Singapore, helped by the Yangshan deepwater mega-terminal, which now accounts for more than one-fourth of Shanghai's volume (8.2 million TEUs, growth of 34 percent over the previous year). The rest is handled at river terminals near the city. Another phase of the Yangshan terminal was opened in December, despite the slump in demand, boosting the facility's capacity to 9.2 million TEUs. And the Shanghai International Port Group, the state-owned entity that develops and operates the terminal in Shanghai, said it would invest another $3 billion to continue expansion at Yangshan, adding 10 to 12 more berths and another 7 million TEUs of capacity by 2012 or 2013.

   Also interesting is that transshipment through Shanghai rose as a percentage of total throughput in 2008 -- from roughly 40 percent in 2007 to 50 percent in 2008. SIPG officials told American Shipper in June the port was actively seeking more transshipment cargo as a way to diversify business.

   Many analysts believed Shanghai would break through the 30 million-TEU barrier in 2008, but that was before the global economic crisis froze demand, a fact SIPG acknowledged in contributing mightily to lower than expected growth.

Source: American Shipper