Volume at Top Three Chinese Ports Drops

China’s top three ports of 2012 saw year-over-year declines in the volume of containers handled in September.  The Port of Dalian, ranked eighth in China in 2012, had the largest increase among the top ports for a seventh straight month, soaring 29.1 percent to 977,000 20-foot-equivalent units. Dalian continues to see the strongest growth in 2013, up 23.3 percent over the same nine months in 2012.

The Port of Shanghai, China’s top-ranked port in terms of container volume in 2012, handled 2.90 million TEUs, down 0.2 percent year-over-year. It remains the top volume port thus far in 2013, with 25.16 million TEUs through September, up 3.9 percent over the same period in 2012.

September volume at Shenzhen, China’s second largest port, fell 7.3 percent over the previous year to 2.01 million TEUs, after dropping 5.8 percent in August. Shenzhen has seen the least growth among the top 10 ports in 2013, year-to-date, with volume only up 0.1 percent over the same period in 2012. The Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan, the third-ranked port in 2012, saw its throughput volume drop 1.8 percent year-over-year to 1.50 million TEUs in September. This is only the second decrease at the port in the past nine months; during that period, Ningbo’s volume has grown 6.7 percent over the same period in 2012.

The Port of Suzhou, the 10th-ranked port in China in 2012, has seen two straight months of steep decline, with volume falling more than 30 percent each month. September’s volume was down 38.1 percent, slipping to 353,000 TEUs from 570,000 TEUs in Sept. 2012. Volume at Suzhou year-to-date is up 2.0 percent from the same nine months in 2012.

Source – http://www.joc.com/port-news/asian-ports/volume-top-three-chinese-ports-drops_20131028.html