Chinese ports see record volumes

Chinese ports see record volumes

China’s busiest port processed a record amount of goods in January, as companies rushed to get their products onto ships before US tariffs kicked in and ahead of a long local holiday, according to official figures released recently.

With our portfolio of international container shipping services and strong presence in the trade between the UK and China, this made interesting reading for Davies Turner.

The report indicate that Shanghai’s port processed a record five million containers in January, well above any previous month in data going back to 2007.

Last year, the port was the first globally to process over 50 million containers in one year, as rising global demand, falling Chinese prices, and the threat of tariffs combined to push the value of exports to a record.  

Chinese firms shipped almost USD525 billion worth of goods directly to the US last year, the third-highest tally on record.

The data shows that nearby Ningbo port also saw a spike in cargo. It reported 59 million tons in foreign trade processed at the port last month.

Despite the record, trade flows slowed in the last week of January and the first week of February, according to separate government data, as companies shut down for more than a week during the Lunar New Year holiday.  

Work restarted at some businesses late last week, but there won’t be any official trade data released until early March, as the government combines the first two months of data to smooth out the volatility around the holiday.

For more information about Davies Turner’s ocean freight forwarding and logistics services, please contact ocean@daviesturner.co.uk or visit the relevant pages of this website.