The slippery box throughput slope
Drewry Shipping Consultants newly released Top 10 container terminal operators ranking lists the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA), not surprisingly, at the No 1 slot, becoming the first company to register an annual volume in excess of 50m teu.
Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) retains the No 2 position and had a relatively quiet year in terms of the year on year increase, traffic increasing by just 2.4% to 34.4m teu over the 2007 volume.
But the big movers in 2008, those experiencing double digit growth, comprised one international terminal operator, DP World, and two shipping lines boasting their own terminal network, namely COSCO and the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC).
DP World traffic increased by 13.8% in 2008 over 2007 volume amounting to 32.9m teu. COSCO volume totalled 11.1m teu, an increase of 13.4% over 2007 volume, and MSC throughput recorded a growth rate just under this of 13.3% amounting to 7.9m teu.
Or to take another perspective only three out of the 10 companies identified were able to register double digit growth and two, Eurogate and SSA Marine, actually recorded a throughput under their 2007 throughput, -0.3% and -1.6% respectively.
Doubtless towards the end of 2008 the majority of companies were adversely impacted by the global economic downturn. At this stage, however, its impact can be judged to be only beginning to be felt. The current year’s figures are expected to show a much bigger impact, a significant reversal of fortunes. Current thinking is that container handling figures for 2009 compared with 2008 will register an overall drop in volume in the order of 15% to 20% – a bleak prospect indeed.