Container Handling Volume in Kaohsiung Port Hits 2nd-Highest 914,400 TEUs in June

With Taiwan's exports surging due to the simmering global economy, as well as promotions of large container ships, the Kaohsiung Port, the largest commercial port by throughput on the island, saw its container handling volume reach some 914,400 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) in June, the second-highest on record, according to Taiwan International Port Corporation (TIPC), a government-linked port operator.

K.Y. Huang, CEO of Kaohsiung Port, noted  that the container handling volume represent a notable 16.73% surge over 783,000 TEUs achieved last June, only about 1,000 TEUs less than the all-time high of 915,000 TEUs in December, 2007.

Huang attributed the banner performance largely to the company's strategy of touting Kaohsiung Port as ideal for larger container ships, which is especially timely considering that ever more larger vessels are commissioned globally. According to the statistics released by Kaohsiung Port, the arrival of container ships with capacity exceeding 10,000 TEUs reached 35 in H1, 2014, surging 483.33% from 6 year-on-year.

To better tap opportunities presented by such trend in global shipping, the Kaohsiung Port has started offering preferential treatment to shippers loading and unloading there since July, to meet the container handling volume goal of 10.3 million TEUs for this year, higher than the record high of 10.257 million TEUs attained in 2007, noted Huang.

Despite the Kaohsiung Port having passed its heyday when it ranked among the world's top-3 three commercial ports by container handling volume, the port, ranked No. 13, may advance in the rankings in the near future, once   ongoing construction of facilities are completed. (SC)