Subscribe to RSS feedHong Kong sees biggest export fall in 55 years
Box volumes through Hong Kong showed a slight month-on-month recovery in April, but throughput was still down more than 20% compared with a year earlier, according to latest official figures.
The latest provisional estimates from the Port Development Council show Hong Kong port handled almost 1.7m teu last month, up 3% compared with the 1.6m teu handled in March.
But April’s volumes were down 20.2% year-on-year and compared with 2.1m teu handled in April 2008.
Exports fell 22.7% in the first quarter, the biggest drop in 55 years.
So far, container throughput has fallen 20.4% to nearly 6.3m teu in the first four months of this year, against almost 7.9m teu between January and April 2008.
The council’s figures, which cover throughput at the nine Kwai Chung container terminals and other facilities, including the river trade terminal and harbour anchorage stevedoring, show the fall in volumes at the Kwai Chung terminals has eased.
Kwai Chung terminals handled more than 1.2m teu last month, down 16.8% compared with a year earlier.
But the fall in throughput in March was down 19.2% year-on-year at nearly 1.2m teu, while in February, box volumes fell 25.1% year on year to 935,000 teu.
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