A YEAR OF CONSOLIDATION

摘要

Hong Kong suffered a 5.2% fall in volumes to 23.1m teu, with Shenzhen breathing down its neck, recording a 1.6% rise that saw it handle 22.9m teu by year end and set a marker for 2013. Chinese ports accounted for seven of the top ten places in 2012, amounting to 135.8m teu, compared with 132m teu the year before. There were no European ports in the top ten, as Rotterdam was edged into eleventh place with 11.8m teu, while Singapore, Busan (17m teu) and Dubai (13.3m teu) were the other non-Chinese ports. Germany's newly-opened deepwater container hub, JadeWeserPort, put its 400-strong labour force on part-time working in February as it struggled to build up volumes. That struggle continues.