Hong Kong remained the top container handling port in the world in 2003 by handling 20 million TEUs, up 4.5% over the year before, followed by Singapore with 18.41 million TEUs, up 8.7%, and Shanghai with 11.28 million TEUs, up 31%, according to announcements by each port authority and a tally by Kaiji Press. Shenzhen (Yantian, Chiwan and Shekou combined) was the fourth with 10.65 million TEUs, up 40%, and Pusan occupied the 5th place with 10.22 million TEYs, up 9.5%. With remarkable growth at the two Chinese ports and Pusan, containers handled at five Asian ports topped the 10 million-TEU level, respectively. Although the increase rate in Singapore was higher than that in Hong Kong, there was a gap of 1.59 million TEUs in handling volume between the two ports. Pusan, which occupied the third place and handled 400,000 TEUs more than Shanghai in 2002, was overtaken by Shanghai and even by Shenzhen, and dropped to the 5th post in 2003. As for the 7th to 10th largest handlers, the line-up did no change, but Los Angeles overtook Rotterdam in handling volume with growth of 17.6% and Rotterdam seceded to the 8th position (7 million TEUs, up 8%). In country-wise share of cargoes from Asia to Europe and North America, China (including Hong Kong) strengthened its presence, accounting for about 60% of the total. Cargoes from China are expected to further increase in the future as influential manufacturers are continuously locating their plants in China. As in 2002, Chinese ports made a remarkable advance in 2003. Increase rate of 40% at Shenzhen was the largest among the top 10 ports. Other major ports also registered double-digit increases with Quingdao handling 4,239,000 TEUs (up 24.3%) and Tianjin 3,015,000 TEUs (up 25.2%). Ningbo, Shanghai's substitute port, increased the volume by 48,6% to 2,763,000 TEUs, a volume equivalent to that at Guangzhou.
Marine Net