Guangdong cargo volume increases 5.5pc but growth rate slows 20pc

GUANGDONG province's ports handled 280 million tonnes of cargo from January through March this year, up 5.5 per cent year on year, but the growth was 20.1 percentage points slower than in the same period in 2010, Xinhua reports.


Guangdong, one of the most important cargo sources in China, only moved 3.6 per cent more containers year on year to 9.87 million TEU in the first quarter, 21.8 per cent slower than a year ago. Containerised foreign trade cargo rose 4.5 per cent to 5.93 million TEU.


The Port of Guangzhou's tonnage dropped 0.3 per cent with container throughput increasing only 2.1 per cent. The Port of Shenzhen's cargo tonnage fell 2.3 per cent while box volume grew 3.6 per cent. The Port of Shantou recorded robust growth in both throughput tonnage and box volume with cargo tonnage climbing 15.2 per cent and box throughput rising 16.2 per cent. Port of Zhanjiang's throughput tonnage increased five per cent while box volume grew 14 per cent.


The Statistics Bureau of Guangdong Province said the slowdown in throughput growth was led by the raw material price hike in the world market and attributed the slow down to last year's stocking up on grain, iron ore, fertiliser and coal, and thus reducing the need to import these commodities this year.
(Source:http://www.schednet.com)