HONG KONG STILL WORLD’S BUSIEST CONTAINER PORT

HONG KONG STILL WORLD’S BUSIEST CONTAINER PORT    The port of Hong Kong remained the top container port in the world in 2002, to nobody’s surprise, when it handled 19 million TEUs, 6.6 percent more than in 2001.
   Stephen Ip, Hong Kong’s secretary for economic development and labor, said that the record volume “confirms Hong Kong’s position as the world’s busiest container port for nine of the past 10 years.”
   Growth in cargo volumes from the southern part of mainland China has continued to boost volumes at the port of Hong Kong, despite the rapid growth of mainland ports in the region.
   Hong Kong was once challenged as the top container port in the world by the port of Singapore. However, Singapore suffered a 9-percent fall in container traffic in 2001 and it is now far behind Hong Kong in container volume terms. In 2002, Singapore handled a throughput of 16.94 million TEUs, an increase of 8.8 per cent from the 15.57 million TEUs handled in 2001.
   Singapore has seen increasing competition as a Southeast Asian transshipment hub from the Malaysian port of Tanjung Pelepas.
   Ip said that the authorities are studying the feasibility of a bridge linking Hong Kong with the western part of the Pearl River delta on the mainland.
   “We have also jointly commissioned a study with the State Development and Planning Commission on how to boost cross-boundary logistics cooperation with the mainland,” Ip said.