Shanghai port traffic rises

Shanghai's ports handled 26 million twenty-foot container equivalent units (TEU) in 2007, a rise of more than 20 percent that helped the city surpass Hong Kong to rank second globally, the Xinhua news agency said late on Friday, citing Shanghai port and shipping officials.
Cargo throughput reached 560 million tonnes in 2007, ranking first globally for the third straight year. Shanghai's Waigaoqiao and Yangshan ports handle the busy trade of the Yangtze River delta, China's most prosperous region and a base for light manufacturing and trade. Singapore is the world's largest port city in terms of TEU throughput. Its throughput rose 12.7 percent to a record 27.9 million TEUs, the Straits Times said earlier this month.
Hong Kong's container traffic slowed by 1.5 percent in 2007 to 23.88 million TEU, according to the Hong Kong Port Development Council, as shippers switched to more convenient ports in the southern Chinese cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen.