Once the world’s largest container port, Hong Kong volumes declined last year by 6.3% to 18.36 million TEU.
In a year that saw the formation of the Seaport Alliance among the Kwai Tsing Terminal operators, the move did apparently little to stem the fall in volumes with the Kwai Tsing Terminals handling 14.22 million TEU last year down from 15.47 million TEU.
Mid-streaming volumes actually saw a marginal rise to 4.14 million in 2019 from 4.12 million TEU a year earlier.
Hong Kong port has faced fierce competition from terminals in South China and container volumes have declined every year since 2011 when volumes were 24.38 million TEU with the exception of 2017 when they moved back up to 20.77 million TEU.
The 2019 figures will see Hong Kong slipping to eighth in the global container port rankings behind Qingdao, which handled 19.2m in the first 11 months of last year.