Empty boxes flood Asian ports

Over 4 lakh empty containers have been piled up at Shenzhen’s Yantian terminal, and in Hong Kong, officials are looking to park hundreds of thousands more in the coming months.
According to Exim News Service, the situation may be the same in Shanghai, other Chinese ports, Hong Kong and many ports around the world, a Hong Kong Shippers’ Council official said.
There are also idle containerships full of empty containers, parked in Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and many other ports around the world.
In January, the volume of boxes through Shanghai, the world’s second-busiest container port, plunged by 15 per cent and that in Shenzhen by a steep 17.5 per cent. The declines were the worst performance ever for the two ports.
In Hong Kong, container throughput fell by 24.1 per cent in December last year and by 23.2 per cent in January. Hong Kong’s container throughput since November last year has been the worst since the early 1990s.
January and February may not be the worst, as grimmer signals are building up from leading indicators for container box movements. A 20 per cent or even more export decline in China in the coming months seems inevitable, an analyst said.
Shanghai International Port Group, the operator of Shanghai’s ports, is handling 30,000 boxes daily now, compared with 100,000 earlier.
Chiwan Container Terminal in western Shenzhen reported that its daily container volume fell to as low as 10,000 TEUs in the first two weeks of February, as against a peak of 20,000 TEUs.
In the north, Dalian and Tianjin ports’ container throughput growth fell into the negative territory in January.

Source: Transportweekly