Ye Feng
The handling volume of China's major ports turned to be steady and rise in the first quarter of this year. The Shanghai Shipping Exchange reported the coastal (bulk goods) shipping price index at 1175.82 points on April 1, up 1.24% over the previous week. The demand for container shipping for export was still sluggish. However, stimulated by price hikes of several shipping lines to Asia, Europe and the Middle East regions on April 1, the price of container shipping reversed the decline momentum to become steady. However, with the arrival of the busy season for the major ocean container lines to Asia-Europe and Asia-America regions each May, the foreign trade container shipping business is expected to rebound significantly. Lately, various shipping companies including COSCO (China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company and the China Shipping Corporation have started preparation, planning to restart the shipping operation which was stopped at the end of last year, getting ready for the coming busy season of shipping for imports and exports.
Port throughput is generally regarded as the leading index of the economy. Qingdao Port, one of the biggest foreign trade ports in China, handled 78.45 million tons of goods in the first quarter, an increase of 4.5% year on year, with the monthly handling volume of 26.46 million tons, hitting a new high for the port. Of this, the handling volume of containers was 2.501 million TEUs, up 2.3% year on year. The Shanghai Port reported the first hefty rise of exit and entry numbers of ships since the third quarter of last year to make 28% growth month on month, about the same as that of March, 2008. The Guangzhou Port Group handled 51.81 million tons of goods in the first quarter, 1.72 million TEUs of containers, less than the same period last year, but showing growth as compared with the first two months of this year.
Coal is an important energy in China, and the coal demand directly reflects the performance of heavy and chemical industries such as iron and steel, electric power and chemicals. Qinhuangdao Port, China's largest coal transshipment port in China, handles about 50% of coals handled by coastal ports. Since March, the coal shipping handled by the Qinhuangdao Port increased rapidly. The port handled goods of 22.13 million tons in March, jumping 45.21% month on month, a new record since September last year.
Iron ore is a major raw material of the iron and steel industry. China's present dependence on imported iron ore has reached 50%, becoming the biggest iron ore importer in the world. Rizhao Port in east China's Shandong province is an important iron ore transshipment port in China, which handled goods of 42.75 million tons in the first quarter of this year, up 9% year on year. Of this, the handling volume of iron ore was 25.61 million tons, up 12.8% year on year. In March, Rizhao Port unloaded iron ore from 37 large ships each with more than 150,000 tons, and each day, more than 200,000 tons of imported iron ore was shipped from the port to iron and steel plants in other areas. Brazilian Companhia Vale Do Rio Doce estimated that it exported 30 million tons of iron ore to China in the first quarter, accounting for 60% of the company's total delivery of the product.
According to statistics, the dropping rate of foreign trade goods throughput of the Chinese ports was 6.1 percentage points in February. At the same time, the container shipping for import and export is forecast to improve and the Shanghai Port and domestic water transport are expected to recover with the arrival of the traditional busy season, and rising demand for transport with the start of production based on China's purchase orders from Europe and America.
