Container Volume Doubled in 10 Years, Will Reach Billion TEU Annually in Next 10, Report Says
The volume of containers passing through world ports has grown from 279.3 million TEU in 2002 to 588.8 million TEU in 2011, according to the “Global Container Terminal Operators Annual Review & Forecast 2012” issued by Drewry Maritime Research. During that period, Chinese ports' share of container volume has grown from 19% to 30%, it said, and the largest container ship has grown from 7,000 TEU to 15,000.
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But the top 5 global/international terminal operators are still largely the same as 10 years ago, Drewry said. On a total TEU basis, Hutchison Ports still leads, with PSA and APM Terminals having exchanged second and third places. In fourth place is DP World, the position which P&O Ports (which was purchased by DP World in 2006) used to occupy. A new entrant in fifth place is the Cosco Group, reflecting the emergence of Chinese players, Drewry said.
Drewry's Neil Davidson said the report forecasts that global container port throughput will exceed 800 million TEU by 2017, and "will easily be in excess of one billion TEU per annum" in ten years. He said "it's also quite possible that ships in excess of 20,000 TEU will be in service on the main east-west routes" by then.
Other findings in the report:
- Economic uncertainty remains a key challenge, especially in Europe
- Global container port demand growth of 6% per annum is expected until 2017, but with significant regional variations -- Europe quite flat for the next few years, North America showing a little growth, and emerging economies showing the strongest growth
- Port congestion is largely absent at present, apart from a few hotspots
- Forecast container port capacity growth is below demand growth, and so pressure could easily build in certain regions towards 2017, especially Asia
- Global/international terminal operators, and indeed the port and terminal industry in general, continue to generate healthy profit margins.