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Shenzhen sawan 8% rise in box volumes in the first half of this year.
This comes as China is set to remain as the ‘world’s factory’, despite the closure or relocation of manufacturing facilities to cheaper countries.
Outlining the capacity issues, GHK (Hong Kong) managing director Jonathan Beard said ports in southern China would have 89 berths by 2010 and “probably 120-122 berths in the longer term”.
Speaking at the Transpacific Maritime Asia conference in Shenzhen today, he said current construction plans envisage an additional 20m teu of capacity by 2010 at ports such as Shenzhen and Nansha. “By 2010, a further 26m teu of capacity is projected, including expansion at Huizhou and Gaolan ports,” Mr Beard said.
This comes as Shenzhen ports face slower growth, with only an 8% rise in box volumes in the first half of this year.
With so much additional capacity, he questioned the financial viability of plans to create the 4.5 km Lingding channel in the Pearl River.
The channel, which will initially be dredged to 17m with scope to be deepened to 23m later, is intended to provide access to the port of Nansha to enable the facility to handle large ocean-going containerships. He said it should be left to the private sector to finance the scheme rather than the government.
By comparison, the Yangtze River Delta could face a “capacity crunch by 2020”, despite moves to increase capacity to 75 berths, mainly around Shanghai, by 2010.
This would follow the development of hinterland areas along the Yangtze River that would boost cargo volumes through the delta ports.
He said changes to China’s labour, tax and environmental laws, together with the US slowdown, rising costs and the appreciation of the Yuan, had led factories in the Pearl River delta to close.
But while 30,000 factories may have shut, some 40,000 plants have opened.
“South China is still going to be hugely important,” Mr Beard said.
Ceva International Logistics Asia Pacific senior vice-president Peter Levesque echoed these comments, adding: “We haven’t seen any concerted effort to move sourcing from China to Mexico.”
AP Moller-Maersk executive vice-president Tom Behrens-Sorensen said he believed the percentage of firms moving out of China is only around 1%-2%.
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