|
Hong Kong volume posts ''mild recovery''
2009/3/18
Hong Kong port throughput in February fell 20.6 percent year on year to 1.3 million TEUs, slightly improved from January''s 23.2 percent drop, according to the Hong Kong Port Development Council.
Hong Kong, the world''s third-busiest port after Singapore and Shanghai, has seen months of falling shipments as export demand fell in the United States and Europe amid the global economic downturn, the South China Morning Post reported.
"We expect lower negative growth in March than February. The market has seen a slight improvement in March. We have seen a mild recovery in imports from the US and the EU to Hong Kong, especially raw materials. That''s a good sign," said Hong Kong Shippers'' Council executive director Sunny Ho.
The recovery was spurred by the mainland government''s relaxation on lending and restrictions on imports, said Ho.
An improvement in raw material imports, which were mainly used in Pearl River Delta factories to produce goods, indicated that exports from the region, including Hong Kong, would improve, he added.
"Manufacturing is picking up a bit, but it''s too early to tell," said Charles de Trenck, an analyst at Transport Trackers, a Hong Kong transport consultancy.
"The difficult question for Hong Kong port is whether throughput growth will be negative five percent or negative 15 percent for the whole of this year."
Container throughput at Shenzhen, much of which passes through Hong Kong as exports overseas, fell 26.2 percent to one million TEUs in February.
Hong Kong fared better than Shenzhen because it had a higher portion of the transshipment trade, said Ho.
Meanwhile, container throughput in Shanghai, the world''s second-busiest port, fell 21.9 percent to 1.4 million TEUs in February, while container throughput at Ningbo fell 21.3 percent.
|
2009/3/19