Prosecutors in the Taiwanese port city of Kaohsiung swooped on the Harbour Bureau offices and arrested two officials for allegedly falsifying container throughput figures.
The detainees are reported to have received bonuses of several million dollars after the port passed the 10 million TEU mark in December last year.
A spokesman for the Kaohsiung Harbour Bureau, who did not wish to be named, told Cargonews Asia the officers had been taken into custody and that "some questions" had been raised about the port's 2007 throughput.
"But I believe there has been a misunderstanding over the cargo that was handled last year," he said.
The Kaohsiung Harbour Bureau issued a statement saying it would cooperate with prosecutors.
Local newspapers reported that prosecutors had become suspicious in October last year and believe more than one million containers were falsely added to the annual total.
Vessels calling at the port inform the KHB via fax of the amount of cargo loaded or unloaded. These numbers are tallied and eventually produce the annual throughput figure.
In a statement issued earlier this year, the KHB said on December 24 Evergreen's Ever Ursula "helped make history when it offloaded its 4,400th TEU onto Kaohsiung Port's Wharf 80".
The statement said: "With this shipment, the Kaohsiung Harbour Bureau achieved its goal of processing 10 million TEU of container through the port in 2007. The Bureau further expects to set an all-time annual record of 10.2 million TEU by the close of the year. This milestone represents an historic high for the Port of Kaohsiung and marks the beginning of a new chapter in the continuing story of Taiwan's container trade."
Kaohsiung has been under pressure for several years with falling throughput seeing the port dropping to eighth place in the world from sixth in 2004.
Strong economic development in China has lured business from Taiwan to the mainland, removing a valuable export and import source for the port. This, combined with changes in shipping routes, has impacted port volume.
Kaohsiung actually recorded a decrease in container throughput in 2005 when ports all around the region were hitting double-digit increases.
The detainees are reported to have received bonuses of several million dollars after the port passed the 10 million TEU mark in December last year.
A spokesman for the Kaohsiung Harbour Bureau, who did not wish to be named, told Cargonews Asia the officers had been taken into custody and that "some questions" had been raised about the port's 2007 throughput.
"But I believe there has been a misunderstanding over the cargo that was handled last year," he said.
The Kaohsiung Harbour Bureau issued a statement saying it would cooperate with prosecutors.
Local newspapers reported that prosecutors had become suspicious in October last year and believe more than one million containers were falsely added to the annual total.
Vessels calling at the port inform the KHB via fax of the amount of cargo loaded or unloaded. These numbers are tallied and eventually produce the annual throughput figure.
In a statement issued earlier this year, the KHB said on December 24 Evergreen's Ever Ursula "helped make history when it offloaded its 4,400th TEU onto Kaohsiung Port's Wharf 80".
The statement said: "With this shipment, the Kaohsiung Harbour Bureau achieved its goal of processing 10 million TEU of container through the port in 2007. The Bureau further expects to set an all-time annual record of 10.2 million TEU by the close of the year. This milestone represents an historic high for the Port of Kaohsiung and marks the beginning of a new chapter in the continuing story of Taiwan's container trade."
Kaohsiung has been under pressure for several years with falling throughput seeing the port dropping to eighth place in the world from sixth in 2004.
Strong economic development in China has lured business from Taiwan to the mainland, removing a valuable export and import source for the port. This, combined with changes in shipping routes, has impacted port volume.
Kaohsiung actually recorded a decrease in container throughput in 2005 when ports all around the region were hitting double-digit increases.