Shanghai to Remain Worlds Top Container Port
Shanghai, China's wealthiest city, said it will remain the world's busiest port for a second year ahead of Singapore as the nation's economic growth boosts trade volumes.
Terminals in the city handled a record 30 million 20-foot equivalent boxes in 2011, the Shanghai municipal government said in a statement on its website on Friday.
The city surpassed Singapore in container traffic for the first time last year by moving 29.05 million 20-foot boxes. Rising exports of Chinese-made goods to the US and Europe, as well as imports, boosted volumes in Shanghai.
Total exports and imports via the city's customs increased 19 per cent to US$790 billion in the first nine months of this year, the city government said in the statement.
Shanghai International Port (Group) Co, the port's operator, gained 0.4 per cent to 2.63 yuan in Shanghai trading on Friday.
The stock has lost 30 per cent this year, compared with a 21 per cent drop in the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index. Shanghai aims to become an influential financing and shipping hub by 2020 and has rolled out a number of financial products to help exporters and shipping companies manage growing volatility in freight rates.
The Shanghai Shipping Exchange plans to expand its shipping derivatives market over the next few years after it launched derivatives based on container freight this year. The statement didn't provide Singapore's container traffic volume this year. Singapore handled 27.3 million 20-foot containers in the first 11 months of 2011, according to the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, which is scheduled to provide full-year figures in January.
The source: The Business Times
