Container traffic through Hong Kong, the world’s third busiest port, fell more than 20 percent in September from a year earlier, despite optimism that global trade is recovering from its deepest slump since the 1930s.

However, third quarter trade volumes rose 7.5 percent to 5.61 million
twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEU) from the April-June quarter, on
improvements in July and August, preliminary data from the Hong Kong
Port Development Council showed on Thursday.

“Global trade has been recovering and the question is how fast will the
pace be?” said Jim Wong, an analyst at Nomura in Hong Kong.

The quarterly comparison would be more representative than a single
month’s data, which could easily be distorted by one-off factors, such
as typhoon, he added.

The Hong Kong data came a day after China reported improving trade
figures in September.  Economists expect China’s exports will continue
to improve in the fourth quarter but some doubt the momentum will last.

“We also think that sequential export growth will likely peak in Q4
this year, followed by a deceleration from the first half of next
year,” said Jun Ma, chief economist, Greater China at Deutsche Bank in
Hong Kong.

Hong Kong handled 1.8 million TEU of goods last month, down 20.2
percent from the same month last year and against 1.94 million TEU in
August.

About 90 percent of goods handled at Hong Kong’s container port — from
toys, clothings to electronic products — are re-exports, most of them
shipped to or from China, the world’s factory.

“Sequential export recovery (on a month on month seasonally adjusted
basis) in China has already been very strong in the past four months,
indicating a strong momentum,” Ma said.

Container throughput at Hong Kong’s neighbouring port of Shenzhen in
the Pearl River Delta fell 11.96 percent to 1.77 million TEU in
September but the contraction was the smallest since November,
according to official Shenzhen data.

Ports in China’s Yangtze River Delta, which rely more on domestic trade
than Hong Kong and Shenzhen ports, posted growth in cargo volumes last
month compared with a year earlier.

Cargo throughput at Shanghai rose 5.8 percent year on year to 33.28
million tonnes last month, according to Shanghai International Port
Group (SIPG).

In terms of box numbers, the world’s second-busiest container port,
moved 2.22 million TEU in September. It fell 5.6 percent year on year,
but was the highest level this year and 1.6 percent higher than in
August.

Container throughput at Ningbo also enjoyed a year-on-year increase of
9.4 percent to 1.05 million TEU last month, according to Ningbo Port,
the port operator of Ningbo.

Source: Alibaba

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