Throughput at the nation’s major ports rose more than 6 percent to a new high last year, as exports soared on the back of solid global demand, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said on Thursday last week.
Cargo handled at major international ports — such as Port of Kaohsiung, Port of Keelung, Port of Taichung and Port of Taipei — totaled about 750 million shipping tonnes last year, up 6.7 percent from a year earlier, agency data showed. Shipping tonnage is the measurement used to bill cargo handled by ports.
As the nation’s export performance improved last year, port throughput reversed a year-on-year 3.8 percent decline in 2020 and a 1.4 percent drop in 2019, the DGBAS said.
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Riding a wave of strong demand for emerging technology products as well as raw materials as part of a global economic recovery amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwan’s exports climbed to a record high, with annual growth of almost 30 percent.
The agency said that cargo loading volume reached about 308 million shipping tonnes last year, up 5.3 percent from a year earlier and accounting for 41.1 percent of total port throughput, while cargo unloading volume was about 442 million shipping tonnes, up 7.7 percent from a year earlier, making up 58.9 percent of the total.
The Port of Kaohsiung handled the largest volume of cargo last year with about 440 million shipping tonnes, which accounted for 58.6 percent of the nation’s total throughput, followed by the Port of Taichung (139 million shipping tonnes, or 18.6 percent), the Port of Taipei (89.67 million shipping tonnes, or 12 percent) and the Port of Keelung (65.46 million shipping tonnes, or 8.7 percent), the DGBAS said.
Last year, Taiwan’s major ports handled 552 million shipping tonnes of container cargo, up 6 percent from a year earlier and accounting for 73.6 percent of the total, the agency said.
Pipeline cargo, including crude oil and other liquefied items, reached 56.95 million shipping tonnes last year to make up 7.6 percent of total throughput, followed by coal (5.4 percent), iron sand (3.7 percent) and iron ore (3.1 percent).
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