Kaohsiung throws good money after bad

It now sits at six and volumes are nearly flat lined, with premier customer, Maersk, ramping up investment and calls at Xiamen, directly opposite the Taiwan Strait on the mainland.The port failed in its stated 2006 goal of 10m teu, posting sluggish growth of 3% to 9.77m teu.

So in this deteriorating business environment what is the Kaohsiung Harbour Bureau’s plan? To invest US$1.5bn to boost throughput to 17.9m teu by 2016. On the plus side, Kaohsiung Harbour Bureau entered long-term container berth lease agreements last year with Hanjin Shipping,Wan Hai Lines and APL and manufacturing output out of Taiwan has shown a healthy turnaround at the start of this year with a 20% growth posted in January. Nevertheless, reports in local media that Maersk intends to reduce its calls at the southern Taiwanese port this year by 15% will make the harbour bureau very, very concerned about their investment plans.