The Port of Kaohsiung was rated as one of the world’s top 10 container ports last year, despite a decrease in the number of containers it handled, Taiwan International Ports Corp (TIPC) said yesterday.
The rating was conducted by Det Norske Veritas (DNV), an international accredited registrar and classification society based in Hovik, Norway.
The Port of Kaohsiung was ranked ninth by the Norwegian agency.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan International Ports Corp
The nation’s largest international seaport last year handled 8.886 million twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEUs), down 3.17 percent from 2024, ranking 20th in terms of the container volume handled.
The port operator attributed the decline in container throughput at the port to disruptions in the global supply chain caused by US tariffs.
DNV ranked international seaports around the world based on five key indicators: productivity, sustainability, connectivity and customer value, overall impact and enablers.
Combined container throughput at TIPC’s ports in Kaohsiung, Keelung, Taichung, Tainan, Hualien and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County fell to 13.51 million TEUs last year from 13.92 million TEUs in 2024.
Despite the decrease, the company reported record-high revenue of NT$23.53 billion (US$743.3 million) last year, a 3.2 percent increase from 2024, TIPC chairman Chou Yung-hui (周永暉) said.
The year-end bonuses that TIPC employees would receive is expected to be the equivalent of 4.4 months of their salaries, pending a final decision by the Executive Yuan and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, the company said.
TIPC also reported a significant rise in the number of cruise ships and cruise ship travelers arriving in the nation last year.
It said that 567 cruise ships made port calls, bringing in 1.15 million travelers, surpassing 1.05 million travelers in 2019.
Forty-one percent of the travelers last year were foreigners, up from 35 percent in 2024, company data showed.
The international travelers were primarily from Japan (27.16 percent), the US (17.37 percent), Hong Kong (10.76 percent), South Korea (9.28 percent) and Germany (6.21 percent), the data showed.
About 60,000 foreign travelers arrived through the “fly-cruise” model, where they fly to a port city to embark on a cruise, the data showed.
Most of the travelers who arrived through the fly-cruise model were from the US, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Canada, the data showed.
Cruise ships making port calls last year were more diverse compared with those arriving before the COVID-19 pandemic, TIPC said.
Before the pandemic, 90 percent of the cruise ships docking at the Port of Keelung were “contemporary” cruise ships, while “premium,” “luxury” and “expedition” cruise ships accounted for only 2.7 percent, 5.7 percent and 1 percent respectively, it said.
However, contemporary cruise ships making port calls fell to 78.08 percent last year, while premium, luxury and expedition cruise ships rose to 7.76 percent, 12.79 percent and 1.37 percent respectively, it said.
The company has established a cruise ship marketing division in light of the increases, while its branch office in Keelung is to launch a cruise ship business development department on July 1, Chou said.
“Aside from consolidating the number of cruise ship arrivals at the Port of Keelung from Japan and South Korea, we want to expand the numbers arriving at the Port of Kaohsiung from the Philippines and Vietnam this year,” he said. “We would also work closely with the Tourism Administration, and the Maritime and Port Bureau to boost domestic island-hopping tours.”
Separately, AirlineRatings.com yesterday released its list of the world’s safest flight carriers, with EVA Airways and Starlux Airlines included.
EVA Air, ranked eighth overall, made the list for the 13th consecutive year and was the only Taiwanese airline in the global top 10 for safety, while Starlux was 11th overall.
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