Hong Kong ten-month box traffic drops 4.4 percent

Container throughput at the Port of Hong Kong in January-October 2012 fell 4.4% year-on-year to 19.43 million TEUs, the Port Authority statistics said.

Shipments of containers through Kwai Tsing terminals climbed 0.8% to 14.62 million TEUs, container traffic at other terminals fell 17.2% to 4.8 million TEUs.

In October, handling of containerized imports / exports dropped by 9.9% to 1.89 million TEUs. Monthly container throughput at Kwai Tsing terminals shrank by 5.7% to 1.43 million TEUs, with a 20.9% decline in container trade at other terminals, to 460,000 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.