The era of slow growth

摘要

The list of the 20 largest container ports in the world in 2013 shows an industry that has undergone profound change and is beginning to settle into a new paradigm. The old rates of double-digit, year-on-year growth in container volumes have almost completely gone. But this is partly due to the way in which statistics work - growth rates are about percentages, rather than the actual increase in volumes. On the face of it there appears to be a large difference between a port that grows by 3 per cent and a port that is growing by 10 per cent. But Shanghai, posting a record 33.6 million teu, added one million teu representing a 3 per cent rise, while a port that handles 10 million teu and adds a similar volume would show a 10 per cent increase.