Mainland ports slip off peak as August eclipses September

MAINLAND China`s top 10 ports handled a total of 12.3 million TEU in September, a decline of three per cent compared to August`s peak of 13.1 million TEU, as the annual slack winter season begins.

On the other hand, growth in the first nine months of the year hit 20.7 per cent with total throughput of 96.8 million TEU, compared to the same period last year.


A breakdown of the results show that all the ports surveyed enjoyed double-digit growth year on year for the first nine months of the year.


But all ports, except for Dalian and Tianjin, saw volumes drop in September compared to August (Lianyungang and Yingkou came out even). China`s biggest terminal, Shanghai, saw its nine-month volume surge 18.5 per cent year on year to 21.5 million TEU, though its September throughput of 2.53 million TEU was down 3.8 per cent on August`s total.


As for Shenzhen, its throughput growth was at 28.4 per cent for the first nine months of the year, but its September volume of 2.06 million TEU was down by 7.2 per cent on August.


Dalian and Qingdao both experienced increases compared to August, "which could be because being located in the Bohai Bay area, they are less exposed to the vagaries of the transpacific and European trade lanes," noted London`s Containerisation International.