HK eyes 'green, smart port' to level up with major Asian maritime hubs

To boost container traffic, it is pushing for sustainability and high-end technology

- Magdalene Fung

HONG KONG Hong Kong has put in place a plan to make its port smart and sustainable, as the maritime hub contends with a decline in container traffic amid stronger competition across Asia.

The city's container port remains among the world's 10 busiest, but the volume of goods passing through a key indicator of the health of an economy - has fallen steadily over the past two decades.

In 2023, Hong Kong recorded an annual container throughput of 14.4 million TEUS, making it the world's ninth-busiest container port, according to a ranking released at the end of February by Ship Technology, a leading news platform in the global maritime industry.

But the figure is 14 per cent lower than in 2022, and a 35 per cent drop from a decade earlier. A TEU, or 20-foot equivalent unit, measures cargo capacity in container ports.

It is a far cry from the city's status as the world's busiest port from the 1990s to 2005.

The latest container traffic data leaves Hong Kong trailing six ports in mainland China, as well as those in Singapore and South Korea's Busan. Shanghai topped the ranking, while Singapore came in second.

Keenly aware of the competition, Hong Kong is now integrating longer-term sustainability with high end technology to level the playing field. "Our plan is focused on two main directions: One, to transform Hong Kong into a green port; and the other, to make it smart... so that we can reverse the declining trend of our port throughput," Transport and Logistics Secretary Lam Sai Hung told The Straits Times.

He acknowledged stiff competition from mainland Chinese ports.

"We are facing various challenges from the ports in our neighbouring cities, for example, Shenzhen and Guangzhou," he said.

"The problem is that the manufacturing bases tend to be close to these ports, so they are geographically more convenient and the cost of using these ports is also lower.