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Kenya: China Leads the Pack in Global Container Trade
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Business Daily (Nairobi)
13 May 2008
Posted to the web 13 May 2008
Ben Sanga And Anunda Nyarang'o
The Port of Mombasa does not feature among the top 30 in the competitive global container trade, the Containerisation International report indicates.
Chinese ports dominated the top 30 spots of the global container trade last year.
China recorded strong growth rates, with the country's ports handling an estimated 21 per cent more traffic than they did in 2006.
In contrast, according to the report, box-handling ports in the United States and Japan struggled and generally saw their positions in the top 30 league drop.
The top 30 container ports accounted for a throughput of 274 million TEU, equivalent to 56 per cent of the world throughput of 484 million twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs).
The leading Chinese port in the league, Shanghai, improved its ranking by one place to position three, overtaking Hong Kong, on the back of more than 20 per cent rise in box traffic to a staggering 26.15 million.
In the same period, the port of Mombasa overstretched itself to a record 22.1 per cent growth to reach 585, 367 TEU compared to 479, 350 TEUs in 2006.
However, these numbers are still a pale shadow compared to major world ports. Mombasa Port is nowhere near the 10 leading ports in China.
This confirms Kenya's urgent need for construction of a new container terminal in Mombasa that will transform it from a feeder port to a main port.
Plans for a second container terminal include the deepening of berths to allow huge ships to dock at Mombasa port.
The Port of Mombasa's container terminal has a capacity of handling 400,000 TEUs and can only be part of the over a million container throughput league only if huge investments are invested in building other terminals.
Analysts point out that box throughput growth in the top league is driven by economic growth as is the case of the Great Lakes nations, which has led to overstretching of Mombasa.
In South East Asia's leading hub, Singapore, box throughput rose by 12.5 per cent to 27.9 million TEU from 24.79 handled in 2006, with the port handling efficiently vast volumes of cargo the main factor behind its continuing success. Singapore claimed pole position.
Though Hong Kong maintained the third place, it recorded a growth of 1.4 per cent, with its box traffic hitting 23.88 up from 23.54 million container throughput, while Shenzhen recorded a remarkable 14.2 per cent with its traffic growing from 18.47 million TEUs to 21.1 million TEUs.
Despite its difficulties, the largest European container port, Rotterdam, surpassed the 10 million TEUs mark with its total traffic of 10.79 million TEUs being an increase of about 12 per cent on the previous year.
With the figures, Rotterdam literally overthrew Kaohsiung, which had a slimmer growth of 0.49 per cent growth reflecting box throughput of 10.26 million TEUs up from 9.77 million TEUs, from the fifth position it held in 2006 to sixth.
Analysts attribute Rotterdam's growth to the port authority's aggressive expansion programme, with plans to spend more than 12 billion Euros on the Maasvlakete 2 and Euromax container terminal projects.
Antwerp and Bremerhaven maintained their positions in the league, although the ports recorded growth rates as high as 16 per cent and 10 per cent respectively.
Felixstowe, the only UK port that appeared in the report, had a 10 per cent increase in traffic volumes and held the 30th position though analysts say that it is likely to slip.
South Korea's principal port Busan managed to hold the fifth place, with its box volumes up by over 10 per cent in 2007 to 13.27 million TEUs.
However, it remained short of the Shenzhen port complex (Yantian, Shekou and Chwan) in southern China, which has catapulted up the league in the recent years with a throughput of 21.1million TEUs, up more than 14 per cent compared with 2006.
Though Japan and US ports appeared on the list, their performance was not impressive.
The collective TEU throughput of Los Angeles and Long Beach fell from 2006's levels with 15.67 million TEUs handled being 0.6 per cent lower than the 15.76 million TEUs processed the year before.
The two ports slipped to the 13th and 15th positions respectively.
And the port of New York/ New Jersey reported progress in its container handling activity, with an estimated throughput of 5.4 million TEU, dropping to the 19th position.
Tokyo's container throughput declined by 3.8 per cent to 3.82 million TEUs and its positions fell two places to 25th, while Yokohama dropped from 27th to 31st position.
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The box throughput growth in these countries is seen as a sign of economic growth and their ports are already investing in massive expansion plans.
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