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Keelung Harbor eyes cross-strait market

Keelung Harbor, the largest and deepest natural seaport in northern Taiwan, could be developed into a base for direct shipping operations across the Taiwan Strait in the long term, the Council for Economic Planning and Development said yesterday.

The area of West Piers 2 to 4 of the harbor could be zoned to a district exclusively reserved for cross-strait direct shipping operations and could become operational soon after the government approves the opening of direct shipping links across the Taiwan Strait, council officials said.

In the short term, the officials said, Keelung Harbor will be developed into a transshipment center hosting industrial processing operations and global goods distribution operations.

The officials said that the value of a full container berthed at a Taiwanese harbor soars by a factor of three if its contents are processed simply, while the value jumps 11-fold if the contents are fully processed.

The officials noted that it takes an average of only two hours and 55 minutes for an airplane departing Taiwan to reach the seven major cities on the west side of the Pacific Ocean, and only 53 hours for a ship departing Taiwan to reach the five major seaports around the Asia-Pacific region,making Taiwanese harbors, particularly Keelung Harbor, excellent choices for intercontinental transshipment operations.
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