COSCO April throughput highlights China’s recovery

COSCO April throughput highlights China’s recovery    Hong Kong-based global container terminal operator COSCO Pacific said Friday throughput at its terminals grew 19.1 percent in April to 3.7 million TEUs.
   COSCO Pacific, a subsidiary of state-owned shipping conglomerate China COSCO Group, has full or partial stakes in 20 container terminals worldwide, all but four of which are in China.
   Regionally, the company's terminals in the Yangtze River Delta saw the widest growth in April. They collectively grew 30.3 percent to 816,000 TEUs, headlined by 98.4 percent growth at its terminal in Ningbo, to 131,000 TEUs for the month.
   COSCO-operated Pearl River Delta terminals grew 24.6 percent to 1.2 million TEUs, aided by the continued strong growth at the company's Nansha terminal, which grew 42.7 percent to 235,000 TEUs. Terminals in Yantian and Hong Kong continued their recovery from low 2009 levels as well. COSCO's Yantian terminal, in which it owns a partial stake, saw volume rise 23 percent to 713,000 TEUs.
   Another sign of container volume recovery came from Singapore, where COSCO owns a small stake in a PSA International-operated terminal. Volume there spiked 41.4 percent to 86,000 TEUs.
   COSCO's only terminals with volume drops in April were in Egypt, where it owns a minority stake in APM Terminals' Suez Canal Container Terminal, and in Tianjin, in the Bohai Bay region. Both terminals saw volume recede about 11 percent in the month (the Suez terminal fell to 200,000 TEUs and the Tianjin to 148,000 TEUs).