HK lags behind Lion City in July container throughput

SINGAPORE has maintained its edge over Hong Kong in terms of container throughput in the first seven months of the year.



The Lion City handled 12.84 million TEU between January and July while its main competitor Hong Kong processed 12.59 million TEU over the same time frame.

Statistics from the Singapore port operator revealed that its operations throughout the world handled a total of 20.70 million TEU, with 7.87 million boxes going through overseas ports, representing year-on-year increases of 9.3 and 9.2 per cent respectively.



The comparable figures for Hong Kong show that the terminals in Kwai Tsing handled a total of 8.11 million TEU in the seven-month period, 10.5 per cent more than in the same period last year.



The cumulative figure for boxes moved by mid-stream and river trade operators between January and July was 4.47 million TEU, a year-on-year decrease of 12.6 per cent.



In July alone, Hong Kong's various ports handled a total 1.91 million TEU, a 2.9 per cent rise over the same month in 2004.



A breakdown of the July figures show that the terminals at Kwai Tsing handled 1.27 million TEU, a year-on-year rise of 7.2 per cent. However, the number of boxes handled by mid-stream and river trade operators during the month slumped by 4.6 per cent over July 2004 to 640,000 TEU.