Shanghai chasing Pusan

Container cargoes through the Port of Shanghai are increasing dramatically and threatening the Port of Pusan, especially in light of China's growing influence and opening to international trade and relations.

The Korea Container Terminal Authority (KCTA) reported on July 10 that the leading container port in China, Shanghai handled 3.06 million TEU in 1998, 4.22 million TEU in 1999, and 5.61 million TEU in 2000, recording a 41.4% annual increase on average.

However, the Port of Pusan only showed a 14% annual average increase to 7.54 million TEU in 2000 from 5.89 million TEU in 1998.

Coming this year, Shanghai showed a sharp increase of 16.2% to 2.94 million TEU in the first half this year compared to the same period of last year. However, the Port of Pusan only recorded a 3.5% increase to reach around 4 million TEU, lagging far behind the Port of Shanghai in growth.

The KCTA predicted that the Port of Shanghai would surpass the Port of Rotterdam if this trend continues, achieving 6.4 million TEU at the end of this year and becoming one of the world's top 5 container ports.

Especially, the Port of Shanghai is pushing to build 52 berths on the Yangtze River delta by 2011 and, as the first phase of this project, develop 5 giant berths capable of handling 2.2 million TEU by 2005.

In addition, world leading port operating companies, such as PSA in Singapore, HPH in Hong Kong, and P&O in Australia, are intensely competing to participate in the Chinese Port Development projects.

A source at KCTA said, "cargoes in China are growing rapidly along with China's fast paced economic development. We had better be prepared for getting transit cargoes from China and hurry to build facilities, as well."