Hong Kong Marine Department statistics for port throughput in February 2022 show an increase of 7.6% over the same period in 2021, following a near 20% decline in January.
 

Total throughput at the Port of Hong Kong for the period was 1.097m teu. Drilling down into the figures reveals, unusually, that the midstream operators were instrumental in ensuring a growth figure.
 

The Kwai Tsing Terminals handled 907,000 teu in February, down 0.8% compared to February 2021. By contrast midstream operators handled 190,000 teu, reflecting an 80.6% surge in throughput for an overall throughput growth of 7.6%.
 

The most likely cause of increased cargo carried by the midstream operators is a severe drop in the number of cross-boundary truck drivers who have fallen victim to an unprecedented increase in Covid-19 infections raging through Hong Kong. According to a River Trade Terminal spokesperson, 2022 has seen an increase in epidemic-related materials being shipped from the mainland. Finally, numbers were particularly low for the Terminal in 2021 because of Chinese New Year.
 

In February the Hong Kong Government gave the go ahead for ships to take up the slack presented by the lack of cross-border trucking capacity. 
 

March has seen a worsening of the epidemic in the territory. It is therefore expected that the River Trade Terminal and the Kwai Tsing Terminals will be more important than ever in ensuring an uninterrupted flow of fresh food and other provisions to the beleaguered territory while the fifth wave of infections continues.

Source: Hong Kong Maritime Hub

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