HK box volume slides 5.4pc yoy in May

THE Port of Hong Kong saw container throughput slide 5.4 per cent in May to 1.73 million TEU compared to the same month last year when throughput totalled 1.82 million TEU. On a year on year basis May was the fourth month in a row that container volumes dipped. But when compared to the previous month, the throughput was 6.1 per cent higher than in April when the port handled a total of 1.63 million TEU.

Kwai Tsing terminals handled a total of 1.35 million TEU in May, nine per cent down from the corresponding period in 2017 when box throughput totalled 1.48 million TEU.

There was an uptick in the container throughput at non-Kwai Tsing terminals where the volume totalled 380,000 TEU, an increase of 10 per cent from 345,000 TEU in May 2017.

For the year-to-date, throughput amounted to 8.25 million TEU, three per cent down from the corresponding five-month period last year.