Sea container traffic through Hong Kong, the world's busiest container port, rose 2.6 percent in February from a year earlier, and throughput at its main facilities in Kwai Chung surged 18.9 percent after price cuts. Hong Kong moved a total of 1.58 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) of goods last month, and terminals at Kwai Chung, which accounted for more than 60 percent of the city's total throughput, handled 998,000 TEU in February, data from the Port Development Council showed on Wednesday.
Goods moved by the river trade terminal and mid-stream operators fell by 16.9 percent in February to 583,000 TEU, the data showed.
In recent years, Hong Kong has continued to lose market share to the neighbouring Chinese city of Shenzhen, where exporters can ship their goods at prices that are about one-third less than they are charged in Hong Kong.
Shanghai, the busiest container port in the mainland, is also growing at a fast pace. It handled 1.11 million TEU of goods in February, up 18.3 percent from the same month last year.