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For two months in a row, another new record for flight movements at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) has been set. Aircraft movements in August reached 22,915, up 11.5% compared to the same period last year. Cargo flights surged by 20.2% during the month and passenger flights grew 10.3%.
Strong export demands to Europe and North America continued to be the major driving force for the robust performance in air cargo tonnage. Cargo throughput in August reached 281,000 tonnes, a 10.4% increase over the same month last year.
Over a rolling 12-month period, cargo tonnage and aircraft movements reached 3,299,000 and 252,815 respectively.
Meanwhile, the Hong Kong port handled a total of 2.02mn TEU is August 2005, a modest 0.9% increase over same period last year. Since January, 14.7mn TEU have passed through the Hong Kong port, 1.2% more than the January-August period last year.
Although statistics remain flat, a recent article in the Hong Kong Trade Development Council’ e-newsletter points out that Hong Kong’s port industry has a bright long-term future according to experts.
One rapid growth factor is in river trade, according to Sean Kelly, managing director of Modern Terminals Ltd, referring to barges which bring containers to Hong Kong for onward shipment from the manufacturing base in the Pearl River Delta region (PRD).
The report points out that it was inevitable that Hong Kong would surrender some market share to Shenzhen, where the container throughput growth rates stand at double digits unabated and most of the container terminals are operated by Hong Kong companies in partnership with local entities. Shenzhen has lower land and labour costs and whereas 10 years ago, Hong Kong handled 96% of exports from the PRD, Hong Kong still has a 60% of what is now a much bigger pie as exports from China have grown exponentially in recent years.
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