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SCMP Reporter

HONGKONG International Terminals (HIT) handled 4.65 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) last year, up 33 per cent over the 1993 figure.

Throughput at Terminals 4, 6 and 7 grew by 15.2 per cent and COSCO-HIT at Terminal 8 East, which opened last year, handled the balance.

By comparison, Modern Terminals, Hong Kong's oldest and second largest terminal operator, handled nearly 1.99 million TEUs last year, up 12.44 per cent over the 1993 figure.

Hong Kong is believed to have handled more than 1.2 million TEUs last year, retaining its position as the world's leading container port, ahead of Singapore.

'HIT is continuously improving efficiency and productivity at its existing facilities to better meet customer needs,' said HIT managing John Meredith.

He said the Port Development Board (PDB) was considering HIT's request for additional back-up land to increase capacity and improve productivity.

HIT, in the first ever face-to-face presentation to government officials by a terminal operator, recently requested more back-up land to offset its present shortfall in relation to other operators.

Tony Eason, Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands, headed the government team.

'Although we are the largest operator, with 10 berths at Kwai Chung, HIT has a land area of 9.8 hectares per berth, when the PDB itself recommends 15 ha per berth,' Mr Meredith said.

'All other operators have at least 14 ha per berth.' At present land outside the terminals is rented for use as container storage depots.

Mr Meredith said this and increasing operating costs by over $1.5 million a month added to traffic congestion at Kwai Chung, as boxes were moved between the terminals and depots.

An additional 12 ha of back-up land, located within HIT terminals, would enable throughput capacity to increase by 500,000 TEUs, based on the company's present per hectare throughput figures, and would be equivalent to adding 1.25 berths, he said.

The shortfall between container throughput demand and the available capacity will be over one million TEUs by the end of next year, assuming only a modest 14 per cent growth a year, he added.

Hong Kong's container throughput actually rose by more than 20 per cent last year.

'HIT's proposals will go a long way to meeting this demand, and productivity improvements that are currently under way will further assist,' Mr Meredith said.

Although not the first request for additional back-up land, this was the first formal presentation made to the Government by a terminal operator seeking to alleviate anticipated congestion at Kwai Chung.



Terminal 8 boosts HIT box numbers