Hong Kong box traffic down 3.7 percent

Container traffic at the Port of Hong Kong (China) in January-August of 2012 totaled 15.63 million TEUs, a 3.7-percent decline compared with the same period last year, the Port Authority statistics said.

Shipments of containers through Kwai Tsing, the port's largest container terminal climbed 0.8% to 11.73 million TEUs, container traffic at other terminals fell by 15.2% to 3.9 million TEUs.

In August, handling of containerized imports / exports dropped by 9.2% to 1.95 million TEUs. Monthly volume of containers at Kwai Tsing fell 4.4% to 1.46 million TEUs, with a 21% decline in box throughput at other terminals, to 490,000 TEUs.

Port of Hong Kong is one of the busiest container ports in the world. In 2011, overall container throughput at the Port of Hong Kong totaled 24.4 million TEUs. The port is able to handle 456,000 ships a year.