12 December, 2002 (Thursday)

Container throughput of the port of Hong Kong is soaring to its all-time high with the forecast of 18.6 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) for the year of 2002, an increase of 4.6 per cent over 2001.

The forecast throughput volume, also a world record, will make Hong Kong once again the world's busiest container port in 2002, the tenth time over the last 11 years since 1992.

"The projection is based on the provisional throughput of Kwai Chung container terminals for the first 11 months and the port's overall performance for the first nine months," a spokesman for the Hong Kong Port and Maritime Board said today (12 December).

"The Kwai Chung container terminals recorded a cumulative throughput of 10.8 million TEUs from January to November, up 4.7 per cent over the same period in 2001. In November, the Kwai Chung container terminals' throughput surged 16.6 per cent year-on-year to 1.03 million TEUs," the spokesman said.

"In the first nine months, the Hong Kong Port's overall performance saw a year-on-year growth of 4.9 per cent, amounting to 14.1 million TEUs in throughput. The volume handled in the month of September by the Hong Kong Port continued to go up by 12.7 per cent to 1.8 million TEUs.

"The growth momentum in the container throughput in the past few months is expected to continue in the fourth quarter of the year, leading to the 18.6 million TEUs projection for the port of Hong Kong in 2002," he added.