Shipments drop again, recovery not in sight

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-03-08 10:03

BEIJING -- China's port container handling volume recorded a year-on-year decline in February, expanding the drop in January as the financial crisis continues to hurt the country's exports.

File image shows cargo ships docked at a shipyard in Shanghai. [Agencies]

The volume of containers handled by ports nationwide totaled 6.97 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in February, down 17 percent compared with the same month of 2008.

The figure was also down 22.5 percent from January which saw 8.99 million TEUs, down 13.3 percent year on year and 12 percent from December of 2008.

A report released by China International Capital Corporation showed that recovery was not yet in sight as overseas demand would shrink further. It said the decline in February widened in spite of three more working days compared with the same month of 2008.

China's export volume decreased 17.5 percent year on year to US$90.45 billion in January, according to the General Administration of Customs.

Exports data for February will be released next week. However, the 21st Century Business Herald quoted a trade official as saying exports decline would deepen to more than 20 percent from the same period of 2008.

The total volume of coal was reduced by 15 million tonnes in February, or 15.5 percent from a year-earlier level. And the metal volume slid eight percent year on year.

The report forecast a possible pick-up of the metal volume as the four-trillion-yuan stimulus package and measures to revive steel, auto and shipbuilding industries would drive up the demand for metal.