COSCO volumes reflect Singapore’s struggles

COSCO volumes reflect SingaporeÆs struggles Throughput at the COSCO Pacific-PSA International jointly run terminal in the Port of Singapore is off 56 percent through the first two months of 2009, a sign of how slumping demand has affected the world’s biggest container ports.
   The terminal isn’t one of COSCO’s biggest, but total throughput for the Chinese terminal operator at the 20 global terminals it has stakes in dropped 11 percent in February and 7.8 percent for the first two months of the year.
   Aside from Singapore, the biggest declines in February for COSCO were in Nansha (28.4 percent) Hong Kong (28.1 percent), Shanghai (23.1 percent), Yantian (15.3 percent) and Dalian (14.1 percent). Those are five the terminal operator’s biggest facilities, but its biggest terminal, in the Port of Qingdao, actually saw growth of 2.7 percent in February to 686,300 TEUs.
   Going back to Singapore, the Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore said February volumes at the world’s busiest container port fell nearly 20 percent in February. That’s the seventh straight month of declining volume, the longest such stretch on record.