Major capacity shortfall in the east

Drewry Shipping Consultants believes that East Asian ports will lack 14m TEUs in capacity by 2007 unless more investment in facilities is made a priority. In that year demand will be 143.3m TEUs compared with capacity of 129.5m TEUs, assuming an annual projected growth rate of 8%-9%, with China seemingly to continue growing by at least 20% annually over the next two years. However, the situation in South East Asia is better, with a shortfall of just 600,000TEUs.