Hong Kong port set for decline, says study

Hong Kong's deep-sea port is set to go into steady decline as mainland terminals catch up, a new report by an international club of developed economies says.儲存The growth in tonnage handled at the city's port has slowed to an average of 4 per cent a year in the past decade, compared with 16 per cent a year in Shenzhen and 18 per cent in both Guangzhou and Shanghai, according to the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.Container throughput has seen a similar trend, with Hong Kong's growing 20 per cent between 2002 and last year, against 570 per cent in Guangzhou and 280 per cent in Shanghai.The port's share of Hong Kong's gross domestic product declined from 2.4 per cent in 2001 to just 1.6 per cent in 2011. Port-related jobs account for 3.2 per cent of employment compared with 4 per cent a decade ago.Olaf Merk, OECD administrator for governance and regulation of ports, said the mainland could take an even larger bi迷你倉e of the city's market share if its shipping regulations were removed."Should China open its shipping laws to allow foreign-owned vessels, Hong Kong would lose some of its advantages," he said.The city currently benefits from a cabotage law that bans foreign shipping companies from directly sending cargo from one mainland port to another.Baptist University economist Dr Mo Pak-hung said the industry's decline was "inevitable". "Our strength is not in logistics any more. Just as the manufacturing industry has declined but not disappeared, the shipping industry will follow the same fate."Shippers' Council chairman Willy Lin Sun-mo said the decline was relative, not absolute. "As long as both [Hong Kong's and Shenzhen's] ports work together, throughput can grow," he said.The OECD said Hong Kong's port still maintained a competitive edge in its comparatively higher efficiency and turnaround times, high value-added services and strong maritime law.儲存倉