China’s major ports continue to grow despite congestion worries

Container volumes at China’s major gateway ports has increased year-on-year (YoY) 16.8% between January and May 2021, with seven of its eight largest gateways seeing a double-digit bounce.

The country has seen severe fluctuations in container volumes since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and most recently the Port of Yantian has suffered severe congestion following an outbreak among its workforce.

According to the Ningbo Shipping Exchange, the best performing gateway was the Port of Shenzhen, which grew by 34.4% YoY between January and May 2021.

It was followed by the Port of Ningbo and Zhoushan, where growth was 23.5%, and Tianjin where it was 20.1%. The ports of Shanghai and Qingdao grew by 14.5% and 12.5% respectively, with the port of Guangzhou seeing growth of 11.3%.

The Port of Dalian was once again the worst performing of the ports measured and the only one to see traffic shrink; its volumes plummeted by 15.6% in the first five months of 2021. When May’s traffic is looked at in isolation, Dalian was still the only major Chinese port to decline as it saw volumes fall by 33.3%.

Four of the remaining seven ports measured saw double-digit growth, indicating that the country’s maritime sector is robust. Shenzhen was the best performing port with growth of 29.3% and the Tianjin the second as it grew by 21.8% YoY.

https://www.porttechnology.org/news/chinas-major-ports-continue-to-grow-despite-congestion-worries/