Shanghai
throughput in 2011: 31,839,000 TEU
Shanghai continued to dominate the number one world spot in 2011 and its looking like they will maintain this position once all the 2012 traffic figures are crunched . Crowned the world’s busiest container port in the world in 2010, Shanghai took the number one spot from the Port of Singapore, as it saw its throughput recovering much faster from the downturn in container traffic as a result of the global economic crisis. In 2011, Shanghai saw container throughput increase to a total of 31 million TEU – up 9.53% compared to 2010 when it handled 29 million TEU. According to the city’s first five-year plan for the shipping industry, the port will not be ‘sitting on its laurels’ as it is aiming to achieve 4.1% growth in its container throughput by 2015. The port is determined to achieve an annual throughput of 33 million TEU by 2015, a figure it hopes will allow the port to remain the leader even when growth is affected by slowing global trade. China’s State Council also aspires to develop Shanghai into a major financial and shipping centre by 2020, and plans outline some tasks for the city to be completed by 2015, including the creation of a market for second-hand vessels with an annual turnover of USD1.58 billion. Zhang Lin, Vice Director of the Shanghai Transport and Port Authority, said one of the city’s efforts in the period through 2015 was also to enhance the capacity of inland waterways connecting Shanghai’s ports and neighbouring areas in the Yangtze River Delta region to reduce the use of road traffic. About 42% of Shanghai port cargoes are now shipped via waterways rather than by road or rail. The city aims to raise that figure to 45% by 2015. But there are concerns that China is ‘overheating’ and that double digit growth figures are a thing of the past. This is reflected in the period January to April 2012, when ports in China recorded a throughput of 3.09 billion tonnes, up 7.5% compared with the year before, but still 7.5% lower than the growth figure in the same period in 2011. In terms of container throughput traffic increased 8.4% to 54.17 million TEU – down 5.6% compared to 2011.
Shenzhen
throughput in 2011: 22,570,000 TEU
Shenzhen, the world’s fourth-busiest container port didn’t report significant growth in throughput last year. The port handled a total of 22.57 million TEU in 2011 compared to 22.51 million TEU the previous year – up only 0.27%. This result is in stark contrast with the previous year when it reported growth of 23.34% over 2010 – the highest on record for the port with around 75% of the total coming from overseas container flows. Together Hong Kong and neighbouring Shenzhen, both governed by the Chinese Government, form one of the leading ports complexes in the world serving one of the busiest regions – the Pearl River Delta. But the weak performance of Shenzhen points to the slowing economy in South China, which has seen factories move to other parts of the country or reduce their output due to weak demand from Europe. In the first two months of this year, Chiwan Wharf Holdings, the port operator that handles roughly a quarter of Shenzhen’s container throughput, reported a decrease in container throughput compared to the same period in 2011.
Ningbo-Zhoushan
throughput in 2011: 15,220,000 TEU
Despite the continued worldwide economic downturn in 2011, the port of Ningbo-Zhoushan focused on their strategic target of “building a world class strong port” to expand their market, accelerate growth and reach a new historic high. This has certainly been the case in 2011 as Ningbo-Zhoushan became another Chinese port that saw double digit growth in container throughput – handling a total of 15.22 million TEU in 2011 – up 15.8% compared to 2010. Ningbo is a major gateway port in Eastern China and the Zhejiang Province. Container throughput in Ningbo grew 17% annually from 2006 to 2010. At the current growth rate, Ningbo capacity utilisation will exceed 80% by the end of 2012, and the Meishan project for berths 3-5 represents the future source of capacity. Meishan Container Terminal is the newest container terminal in Ningbo and in June 2012 APM Terminals and Ningbo Port Group signed a major agreement reflecting a 75%/25% (Ningbo Port Group/APM Terminals) share to jointly invest and operate berths 3, 4, 5, comprising a one kilometer quay. Once constructed, the new facility will become operational by the end of 2014. It will have five deep-water container berths with an annual capacity of 3 million TEU. With economies around the world slowly picking up again container throughput at Ningbo-Zhoushan for the first two months of this year came to a total of 2,432,000 TEU – up 12.2% compared to the same period in 2011. In January the port’s Jint
ang Dapukou container terminal recorded a surge in the box throughput, which was a result of four newly launched container shipping lanes.
Guangzhou
throughput in 2011: 14,400,000 TEU
The port of Guangzhou is operated by Guangzhou Port Group Co Ltd, a wholly state-owned company. On February 2004, Guangzhou Port Group reformed and separated from the former Guangzhou Harbor Bureau in accordance with relevant Chinese laws on modern enterprise mechanism. Last year, Guangzhou Port Group Co handled a total of 14.4 million TEU – up 14.74% compared to 2010 when it handled 12.55 million TEU. Guangzhou Port has more than 20 container berths of different classes operated by numerous subsidiaries including Nansha Stevedoring Company (Nansha Phase I), Guangzhou South China Oceangate Container Terminal (Nansha Phase II), Guangzhou Container Terminal (GCT), Huangpu Old Port, Hennan Branch and Xinfeng Branch. Nansha Terminal (both Phase I and Phase II) is located at the estuary of the Pearl River covering 14 cities within a radius of 60km. The deep-water terminal has ten 100,000 tonnage class container berths with a depth of 15.5m alongside capable for accommodating 10,000 TEU vessels. International container shipping lines like Maersk, MSC, CMA-CGM, Evergreen, COSCO, CSCL all call at Guangzhou with services to different locations including the US, Europe, Mediterranean, the Red Sea, Middle East, Intra Asia and Africa. Guangzhou Port Group is also operating a “Shuttle Bus” to complement their distribution network, connecting medium to small terminals within the port area. Other initiatives include numerous feeder services and intermodal services.
Qingdao
throughput in 2011: 13,020,000 TEU
The port of Qingdao is an important hub for international trade and sea-going transportation along China’s Yellow River basin and along the west bank of the Pacific. Perhaps better known for its bulk operations (handling coal, crude oil, iron ore, grain, etc) – it is the world’s largest port for inbound iron ore and China’s largest port for inbound crude oil – and boasts the world’s highest productivity for iron ore discharging. But the port of Qingdao offers also high productivity in container handling and has established trade relations with over 450 ports in more than 130 countries and regions across the world. As a result, the port handled a total of 13 million TEU in 2011 – up 8.4% compared to 2010 when it handled 12 million TEU. The port is divided in 4 areas: Qingdao old port area, Huangdao oil port area, Qianwan new port area, and Dongjiakou port area and has altogether 81 berths, among them there are 75 for cargo handling operations of which 59 are at or above 10,000dwt level. Host to the world’s largest container terminal for 12,000-15,000 TEU vessels, the port of Qingdao has always been a pioneer in world port development, promoting the establishment of the convenient, safe, economic and efficient transport systems in China. The port has some amazing statistics – it has 1.3% of China’s total quay length, handles 6.9% of the country’s total cargo throughput, is the largest local taxpayer, and for 4 consecutive years the Port turned in returns on state-owned capital accounting for over half the city’s total. In 2009, it paid off all debts and loans to realise zero debt operation. So far, 9 of the Fortune 500 companies have established cooperation with Qingdao Port Group.
Tianjin
throughput in 2011: 11,500,000 TEU
Tianjin Port, located on the northwest bank of the Bohai Bay, is another Chinese port that has seen double digit growth in 2011. The port handled a total of 11.5 million TEU in 2011 – up 13.9% compared to 2010 when it handled a total of 10.1 million TEU. Last year we reported that Tianjin has plans to increase cargo throughput with the construction of 300,000 tonnes shipping lanes in order to increase throughput to 560 million tonnes by 2015 and that annual container capacity will have grown by 1.8 million TEU by 2015.These plans are still in force with the North China’s Tianjin Port aiming to double its container throughput by 2015 to become one of the world’s top five container ports. At the annual session of the Tianjin Municipal People’s Congress Yu Rumin, chairman and senior engineer of Tianjin Port Group Co Ltd said, “The plan is to increase the port’s annual container throughput to 20 million TEU by 2015.” He also said that the Central Government’s 2010 policies to develop Tianjin’s port area will assist in reaching this. These policies outline tax reductions for ocean-going
ships that use Tianjin Port and the creation of a free-trade zone in the Binhai New District. The free-trade zone will enable the port to further enlarge the scale of port handling logistics and comprehensive service functions in the next five years. Initially it will construct a logistics network covering all hinterlands by aiming to establish itself as the “North China Shipping Centre.”
The network consists of Tianjin connecting 20 hinterland cities over 12 provinces. Seven of these centres are already operation, including the ones in Beijing’s Pinggu District, Hebei province’s Shijiazhuang city and Inner Mongolia’s Baotou city.
Xiamen
throughput in 2011: 6,461,000 TEU
The port of Xiamen is located in China’s Fujian province and is operated by Xiamen Port Group. It is the largest port in the province and becoming a more important gateway for the neighbouring hinterland provinces. In 2010, the port handled a total of 5.8 million TEU – up a staggering 24.35% from the 4.69 million it handled in 2009. This growth was contributed to recovering economies around the world but in 2011 the port reported to have seen double digit growth – albeit smaller. Last year, the port handled a total of 6.46 million TEU – up 11% compared to the 5.8 million TEU it handled in 2010. Xiamen Port group is working hard to execute their National 12th Five-year Plan which included plans to increase throughput to 200 million tonnes (with foreign trade throughput amounting to 100 million tonnes) by 2015. To achieve these goals it would reconstruct and relocate some of the port areas. Currently there are two new deep-water port areas under construction – one at Xiang’an in the north and the other one in Gulei in the south. Included in the plans is an extension to the shoreline to 84.5km while the terminal will cover 75.65 square meters. According to the Five-year Plan, Xiamen will have 337 berths operated in 2015, including 248 deep-water berths with a capacity of 600 million tonnes.
8 Dalian
throughput in 2011: 6,351,000 TEU
Dalian Port, located in the south of Northeast China, the entrance of Bohai Rim, is regarded as the core of ‘Northeast Asia International Shipping Centre.’ Last year, the port handled a total of 6.351 million TEU – a 21.2% growth compared with 2010. This impressive growth figure was also top-ranked nationwide. The sound performance of Dalian Port in 2011 was based on the strengthening of market development, attributed to the beneficial policies given by Liaoning Provincial Government and Dalian Municipal Government to assist the port to realise its goal ‘to reach 10 million TEU in year 2013’. Based on the figures for 2011 the port is confident that it will handle an estimated 8 million TEU in 2012 and that this rapid growth will continue in consecutive years. In order to realise this increase in volume Dalian Port made great efforts in its services in 2011. The port has taken full use of economic policies and advantages for local enterprises, continuously maximising the use of the channel and the berths, further developing relationships with shipping lines, winning new services on that of existing services. Last year, Dalian also concentrated on the development of a new trans-shipment system and welcomed 9 new shipping lines for that purpose.
9 Lianyungang
throughput in 2011: 4,822,000 TEU
Lianyungang, located in Jiangsu province, continues to set a yearly record with double digit growth on their container throughput. In 2011, the port handled a total of 4.8 million TEU – up a massive 24.6% compared to 2010. Although 2010 saw a much bigger growth margin of 28.11% compared to 2009. As a result the port moved up 6 places in the Top 100 ranking – which is unbelievable as only 6 years ago – back in 2006, it had ‘just’ reached an annual container throughput of 1.3 million TEU, which ranked it somewhere on spot 97 of the Top 100 ranking. The beginning of 2011 was a continuation of 2010 for the port with growth of 21.5% in the first three months of the year – handling 40 million tonnes of cargo. Total cargo throughput in 2011 was 166 million tonnes. In April 2011, the port started the first phase of the construction of a 300,000 tonnes deep-water channel for easy access to the port. This construction project is currently on schedule and will take three years with an estimated cost of USD 1.2 billion. The deep-water channel will link the port area of Lianyungang with the port area of Xuwei and enhance the capacity of these two areas, becoming a main shipping lane connecting sea-land transport. The channel is 400m wide and has a depth of -26.2m. Shanghai Dredging Co Ltd, the company
that was awarded the dredging contract from Lianyungang Port for the dredging of the existing basin and silt sinking deepening near the 250,000 tonnes ore terminal , is reporting to be on schedule and dredging will be completed at the end of December 2012.
10 Suzhou
throughput in 2011: 4,690,000 TEU
Suzhou is another Chinese port that has seen not only double digit growth in 2011 but also one that continues to see growth of around 30%! The port of Suzhou is one of these ‘phantom’ ports located on the Chinese inland waterways. Suzhou is an inland city and as a result there is no “Port of Suzhou” as such. Suzhou is surrounded by three nearby ports – Changshu, Taicang and Zhangjiagang, hence the Port of Suzhou. The three ports are the hub for an industrial hinterland that produces goods for the rest of the world. In May 2011 the completion of the widening and deepening of the 92.2km long and 350-400m wide Yangtze Estuary channel was completed, following three phases of dredging since 1998. The deepening of the estuary means that third and fourth generation container vessels are able to wind their way up the river with larger ports being built to accommodate these ships. Fifth and sixth generation container vessels can also access the channel but only during high tide. This effectively means a container vessel can reach Taicang port in 24 hours. Out of the three ports Taicang is perhaps the one to watch. Back in 2010, Taicang signed a co-operation agreement with Kaohsiung Port in Taiwan. This agreement was aimed at transferring and distributing cargoes, port management and design, etc. This has brought great benefits to the port and as a result it is the fast growing contributor of container flows to the total for the port of Suzhou.