Four Chinese ports among top 10

With China’s container trade having posted 21 per cent growth in 2007, four of the world’s top 10 container ports in 2007 were located in that country, with Shanghai — with a throughput of 26.15 million TEUs — occupying the number two position. The other three were Hong Kong (third position, 23.88 million TEUs) Shenzhen (fourth, 21.09 TEUs) and Qingdao (10th, 9.46 million TEUs). Singapore remained the world’s largest container handling port, w ith throughput rising to 27.9 million TEUs. South Korea’s Busan port, placed in the fifth position, achieved a throughput of 13.27 million TEUs, followed by Rotterdam (sixth, 10.79 million TEUs), Dubai (seventh, 10.65 million TEUs), Kaoshiung (eighth, 10.25 million TEUs) and Hamburg (ninth, 9.9 million TEUs). In terms of rate of growth also, some of the Chinese ports were ahead of others. For example, Shanghai posted 20 per cent growth compared with Singapore’s 12.5 per cent. Shenzhen posted more than 14 per cent growth compared with 12 per cent by Rotterdam and 10 per cent by Busan. However, Hong Kong posted a meagre 1.4 per cent growth. Ports in the US and Japan fared far worse last year than in 2006.