Chinese ports brace for bleak year ahead

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Janet Porter, Los Angeles - Friday 6 March 2009

 

CHINESE ports are preparing for a bleak year as the full impact of collapsing US and European consumer spending hits Asian export markets. 
Cargo figures already show a very sharp contraction in port throughput in the final weeks of 2008, with the grim performance figures continuing into the first two months of 2009. Some ports in southern China saw volumes plunge by a third, with no relief in sight. 
“The worst is yet to come,” China Merchants chairman and managing director Fu Yuning warned last week. 
After years of sensational growth figures, Chinese ports will be lucky to see any net increase at all in 2009. China Merchants is provisionally forecasting nationwide throughput of 129m teu, unchanged from 2008. 
But the figure could well be negative, Dr Fu said in a speech to the Trans-Pacific Maritime conference. 
That would be the first time that container volumes have remained the same, or even fallen, year-on year, he said. 
Hope is now being pinned on China’s massive stimulus package, which is being put in place at high speed as the government responds to the crisis of 20m unemployed migrant workers. 
The one slightly encouraging development was an improvement in the number of loaded containers moved in the latter half of February, Dr Fu told delegates. And by 2010, he thinks the worst may be over. 
But Cosco Research executive deputy director Simon Young told the same conference that there was no sign any recovery in the container trades. Furthermore, the slump that has already spread to the the car and bulk trades is likely to hit tankers as well, he said. 
As trade conditions worsened, ports were also having to contend with the problem of empty containers piling up, said Modern Terminals general manager Vincent Li. 
“They are stuck in our yards, not moving and creating a challenge to operational efficiency.” 
With ports struggling with the added headache of laid-up ships and omitted calls, Mr Li called for greater co-operation between terminal operators, shipping lines, railroad operators and truckers to ensure cargo continued to flow efficiently.