Kaohsiung Harbor achieved growth of 3.2 percent in container volume last year but is losing competitiveness, a harbor official said yesterday.
"In 2006, Kaohsiung Harbor handled 9.7 million TEUs [Twenty-foot Equivalent Units], up 3.2 percent from 2006, but we fell short of our target of 8 million TEUs," said Huang Kuo-ying (
Huang said that he believed Kaohsiung Harbor would have maintained its ranking as the world's sixth-largest container port as the world's seventh-largest port, Rotterdam, handled only 9.6 million TEUs last year, failing to beat Kaohsiung's figure.
"But we will not know for sure until figures of the other ports are out two weeks later," he said.
For this year, Kaohsiung Harbor aims to handle 10 million TEUs.
To achieve this, Kaohsiung Harbor plans to build a new container terminal, sign long-term contracts with foreign shipping lines, offer incentives to foreign shipping companies and improve port service.
"Last year we signed 10-year contracts with Hanjin, APL and Wanhai. In 2007, we hope to sign long-term contracts with Maersk-Sealand, NYK and Evergreen," Huang said.
Kaohsiung Harbor was the world's busiest container port in 1999, but its ranking has fallen because of the expansion of neighbouring ports and the five-decade ban on direct shipping with China.
Last year Kaohsiung Harbor was the world's sixth-busiest container port after Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Busan.
Kaohsiung Harbor's ranking is expected to slide further as Chinese ports quickly expand to meet China's economic boom.
On Dec. 31 last year, the Xinhua news agency said that Shanghai Harbor, China's largest, announced that it had handled 537 million tonnes of cargo, 21.2 percent up from 2005, and was poised to overtake Singapore as the world's largest port. In terms of container volume, Shanghai Harbor handled 21.7 million TEUs last year, up 20.1 percent from 2005.
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