Still box gloom for HK

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.
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.
But the figures also show that volumes through the river trade terminal and midstream stevedoring operations have continued to slump as the number of empty boxes being repositioned has fallen.
The river trade terminal and other facilities handled 460,000 teu in April, down 27.9% on the previous year. In March, throughput at these operations fell 18% year-on-year to 440,000 teu.
Hong Kong Shippers’ Council executive director Sunny Ho said the April figures were worse than expected and reflected fewer export orders being placed at factories in southern China’s Pearl River delta.