Shanghai International Shipping Institute (SISI) says that during the second quarter of 2014, global ports suffered weak performance because of lower trade demand by Asia.
In its Global Port Development Report 2014 Q2, SISI said that domestic trade at Chinese ports is also at a low ebb and both of these factors is slowing down the expansion of global ports, which may continue for the rest of the year.
China and other emerging Asian countries are, according to SISI, under the double pressure of slower foreign trade and insufficient internal drive. This in turn is slowing the growth of cargo throughput to less than 5%.
Nonetheless, Chinese ports still occupy positions one and two in SISI’s top 10 ranking in terms of throughput. In first place was Ningbo-Zhoushan with 44,520 teu (a year on year growth of 10%) and Shanghai in second place with 38,338 teu (year on year growth of 4%).
In all Chinese ports above the designated scale achieved a container throughput of 96.7m teu up 5.87% year on year, but slower than the 8.3% in 2013, with both inland and coastal now being impacted by slowing throughput.
In contrast, the American economy experienced a robust rebound during the second quarter with its main ports sticking to a 4% rate of growth. European ports meanwhile have maintained a better than 2% growth rate since the beginning of 2014, thanks to continued economic recovery.
