Asian rivalry sparks investment in ports
Asian rivalry sparks investment in ports
SINGAPORE (AFP): Asian economies are pumping massive investments into port development in competition for rapidly- growing cargo traffic in the region, a transport expert said.
Intra-Asian container traffic will have the highest growth rates in the world, in excess of 10 percent a year up to 2010, said Graham Hooper, director of port and planning with Australian consultancy Mausell Pte. Ltd.
Hooper said in a paper delivered at the ongoing Asia Pacific Transport and Logistics 1996 conference here that annual increase in world container traffic was forecast at only six percent.
On future container space requirements in regional ports, he said additional port capacity of between 100 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) and 150 million TEUs would be required.
"Whilst capacity increases can be achieved through operational and technological improvements, and by relieving regulatory constraints, much of the required capacity will be provided through new infrastructure development, " Hooper said.
He also told the conference that competition for cargo had led Asian ports to invest further in developing their facilities.
"In southeast and north Asia, we find that competition between economies is driving investment," Hooper said.
In Singapore, he said, the port was investing heavily in new terminals to maintain and enhance its position as the leading container port in Southeast Asia and the largest transshipment port in the world.
However, current developments in Malaysia and Indonesia were aimed at winning some transshipment traffic from Singapore, he added.
Similarly, in North Asia, Hooper said new development at Kwang Yang Bay in South Korea and the massive program of investment in Japan were at least partly driven by a desire to attract transshipment traffic from central and northern China.
"The next few years may see other ports strategically located on international shipping lanes such as those in Sri Lanka, India and Vietnam being developed to attract transshipment cargo," he said.
But he added that the location of new ports was important not just in terms of shipping lanes but proximity to cargo origin and destinations as well as the capacity and efficiency of the land transport links.
On the world's largest container port Hong Kong, Hooper said its strongest competition in terms of transshipment traffic came from Taiwan's Kaohsiung, where some trade had been diverted and new routes established which bypass the British territory.
His paper was prepared before the current China-Taiwan tensions.
Hooper said that liners, shippers and manufacturers, while acknowledging the quality of port services in Hong Kong, are looking for cheaper alternatives, as shown by the increasing number of direct calls at China's ports.