HPH to Develop Huizhou Container Terminal

Hutchison Port Holdings held a groundbreaking ceremony this week for a development in Huizhou Port in the Pearl River Delta region, the Hong Kong Shipping Gazette reported. 

Huizhou is primarily a multipurpose and liquid bulk port on the east side of the PRD in southeastern Guangdong province. It also handles containers, but only feeder vessels that then bring cargo to the bigger container hubs in the region. But Hutchison, the largest terminal operator in the world, is planning to redevelop it as a container hub in its own right, one with 800 meters of quay by 2010, the report said. 

However, analysts in the region have repeatedly stressed that a severe container terminal overcapacity problem is looming in South China. Expansions are ongoing in the more established terminals in the Port of Shenzhen, while a 10th container terminal in the Port of Hong Kong is on the drawing board. Additionally, a container terminal in Dongguan, the heart of South China's manufacturing region, opened last year. Previously Dongguan only had river feeder berths. 

Meanwhile, competition in the West Pearl River Delta is increasing, with a Hutchison-developed container terminal in Zhuhai (near Macau) adding to capacity at the Port of Nansha. There are also new berths planned several miles upriver in Guangzhou, the biggest city in Guangdong province. 

All the while, growth in container volume through South China plateaued in 2008, with Yantian and Hong Kong struggling to generate originating cargo in the second half of the year.