Rotterdam to pip Kaohsiung as 6th-largest container port in ‘07

The China Times, quoting Kaohsiung Harbour Bureau Director Hsieh Ming-hui, as saying that in the first nine months in 2007, Kaohsiung has handled 10.4 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs), up 4.1 percent year-on-year.

But Rotterdam’s container volume growth has been bigger than that of Kaohsiung, so Rotterdam is set to replace Kaohsiung as the world’s 6th-busiest container port, Hsieh said.

At the end of 2006, Rotterdam lagged behind Kaohsiung by 170,000 TEUs, but in recent months it has attracted a huge number of containers from European ports.

Hsieh warned that at the year-end, Kaohsiung’s ranking may slip to the 8th place if container volume at the Dubai Port shows a 15 percent growth.

In 206, Dubai Port’s container volume grew 10 percent.

Kaohsiung was the world’s third largest container port in the 1990s, but its ranking has been dropping in recent years due to the expansion of neighboring ports and Taiwan’s five-decade ban on direct shipping with China.

Some large foreign shipping lines have stopped calling at Kaohsiung, choosing instead to sail directly to Chinese ports and use shuttle vessels to fetch containers from Kaohsiung.

Currently, Kaohsiung is the world’s sixth largest container port after Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Busan.

The Taiwan press expects Kaohsiung’s world ranking to continue to drop unless Taiwan removes the ban on direct shipping with China.

In 2006, Kaohsiung handled 9.77 million TEUs, up only 3.2 percent from 2005, the smallest growth along with Rotterdam Port among the world’s top 10 container ports.

China’s Shanghai and Shenzhen ports and Dubai in the Gulf showed the biggest growth in container volume.

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