Media: Hong Kong port cargo throughput down 14% in 2023
Container throughput at the port of Hong Kong – once one of the world’s busiest – dropped by 14 percent in 2023 due to the reorientation of suppliers to the ports of mainland China and Southeast Asia, TASS reports
Information about the drop in cargo throughout was reported by the Financial Times newspaper, citing the consulting company Drewry.
According to its data, the volume of cargo processed in the deep-water harbour has decreased to 14.3 million TEU (a twenty-foot equivalent unit is a measure of containerised cargo capacity equal to one standard 20-foot (6.1m) long container) –the largest drop among the world’s largest ports. Hong Kong is currently the 10th-largest port in the world by volume.
“Whilst [Hong Kong’s port] is still a big employer, it is no longer the gateway to southern China as there are other ports in the Greater Bay Area which service the manufacturers there,” noted Tim Huxley, who heads the Hong Kong-based shipping investment company Mandarin Shipping. The region unites Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Zhongshan, Dongguan, Huizhou, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing into an integrated economy and world-class business hub.
This trend, analysts say, is confirmed by the agreement concluded this year between Denmark’s Maersk and Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd to move cargo to the port of Shenzhen instead of Hong Kong.
“The ports of Shenzhen and Guangzhou have invested in deep-water terminal facilities which facilitated an increase in mainline calls, in other words bypassing Hong Kong,” said Eleanor Hadland, Drewry’s senior analyst of ports and terminals.
