The Ministry of Transportation and Communications announced on 30 April that the Port of Kaohsiung, which ranked as high as third in the world in terms of cargo handled in the 1990s, had slipped to eighth place in 2007 after being surpassed by Rotterdam and Dubai. While Kaohsiung's fall has led some to wonder if Taiwan's economy is being marginalized, the Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau stated that the actual reason for the decline was the failure of expansion of the port's infrastructure to keep pace with the booming demand for freight transportation.
The Port of Kaohsiung was designed to handle 10 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) per year, but has been overloaded since 2007, and currently has a throughput of 10.26 million TEUs. The excess containers pack every terminal and even nearby consolidation sheds. Containers for which there is no room have been diverted to other ports, though there are no precise figures for the number rerouted.
As the Taiwanese public has become more aware of its rights, the port has had a harder time acquiring land and has not built a new container terminal since 2000. Furthermore, as part of its efforts to promote leisure and tourism in the port area over the last few years, the Kaohsiung City Government has been pressuring the port to cede the use of some of its land to the city. With neither side willing to give way, the issue will have to be decided by the new central government.
Fortunately, Hungmaokang, a fishing village near the Port of Kaohsiung first developed under the Dutch, will be relocated by June 2009, allowing the port to increase its capacity by 2 million TEUs. The Harbor Bureau has also budgeted funds to purchase some 27 hectares of land near the port next year. These moves will ensure that the port is prepared for the coming boom in cross-strait trade, and enable Taiwan to develop its potential as a transhipment hub.
The World's Top Ten Ports in 2007
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