China Merchants announces 5% throughput growth despite Hong Kong’s decline

Chinese state-owned terminal operator China Merchants Holdings (CMH) has announced throughput growth in the first half of the year of 5.3%.

The majority of the company’s throughput comes from mainland China where its terminals volume increased by 5% to 30.4m teu. Ningbo Daxie’s throughput grew particularly strongly, by 17% to 1.4m teu.

In Hong Kong, on the other hand, throughput fell by 18.7% to 2.28m teu. The port of Hong Kong has been facing declining throughputs for around a year, which has been widely attributed to slowing Chinese exports, a lack of yard space causing congestion and competition from nearby Shenzen.