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Port of Hong Kong
The Port of Hong Kong has always been a key factor in the development and prosperity of Hong Kong, which is strategically located on the Far East trade routes and is in the geographical centre of the now fast-developing Asia-Pacific Basin. The sheltered natural Victoria Harbour provides good access and a safe haven for vessels calling at the port from around the world. In terms of tonnage of shipping using its facilities, cargo handled and the number of passengers carried, Hong Kong is one of the major ports of the world. It is the fourth busiest port in terms of total tonnage handled, and was the world's busiest container port until overtaken by the Port of Singapore in 2005, with 22,430 TEUs handled compared to 23,200 handled in Singapore at the end of the year.
Shipping
Hong Kong continues to flourish as a hub port serving the South Asian Pacific region and acting as an entrepot for the Mainland of China. During 2001, a total of 37 350 sea-going vessels arrived at Hong Kong. In terms of the number of arrivals, there was a slight decrease of 0.9 per cent from the previous year, but the total net registered tonnage went up by 13.1 per cent. Hong Kong has a reputation for efficient cargo handling operations. The average turnaround time for container vessels is about 10 hours. For conventional vessels working in mid-stream at buoys or anchorages, it is 42 and 52 hours respectively.
Containerisation
Hong Kong handled the most containers in the year 2004. It was overtaken by the Port of Singapore since the first quarter of 2005, and is expected to be second to Singapore on ranking by the end of the year, for the first time since 1998. While Hong Kong lost the title only for a year and reclaimed the title in 1999, current trends point to a sustained decline and stagnantation in growth rates compared to its competitors.
Container terminals
There are currently nine container terminals situated at Kwai Chung, Stonecutters Island and Tsing Yi (the last one completed in 2004). Substantial TEU throughput is handled by the River Trade Terminal at Tuen Mun and by mid-stream.
Kwai Tsing Container Terminals
The Kwai Tsing Container Terminals (Kwai Chung Container Terminals until Container Terminal 9 was opened on Tsing Yi), located in the north-western part of the harbour, has nine container terminals with 24 berths of about 8 500 metres of frontage. It covers a total terminal area of about 2.7 km² which includes container yards and container freight stations. The nine container terminals has a total handling capacity of over 18 million TEUs which will help maintain Hong Kong as the premier port for Southern China in the 21st century. Hong Kong handled 20.4 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) in 2003, making it the world’s busiest container port for the 11th time in the past 12 years. Of the total container throughput, some 12 million TEUs were handled at Kwai Chung, while about 8.4 million TEUs were handled in mid-stream and other wharves.
These terminals are operated by five companies, namely:
- Modern Terminals Ltd (MTL)
- Hongkong International Terminals Ltd (HIT)
- COSCO Information & Technology (H.K.) Ltd (COSCO)
- Dubai Port International Terminals Ltd (DPI)
- Asia Container Terminals Ltd (ACT)
The existing 8 terminals occupy 2.17 square kilometres of land, providing 18 berths and 6,592 metres deep water frontage. These terminals handle about 60% of total container traffic handled in Hong Kong.
| Terminal | Operator | Depth (m) | Berths | Quay length(m) | Quay cranes | Area(m2) | Capacity(kTEUs) |
| Terminal 1 (CT1) | MTL | 14 | 1 | ||||
| Terminal 2 (CT2) | MTL | 14 | 1 | ||||
| Terminal 3 (CT3) | DPI | 14 | 1 | 305 | 167,000 | >1,200 | |
| Terminal 4 (CT4) | HIT | 3 | 6 | > | |||
| MTL |
14 |
1 |
|
|
| > |
|
| Terminal 6 (CT6) | HIT | 3 | > | ||||
| Terminal 7 (CT7) | HIT | 4 | > | ||||
| Terminal 8 East (CT8E) | HIT/COSCO | 15.5 | 2 | 640 | 300,000 | 1,800 | |
| Terminal 8 West (CT8W) | ACT | 15.5 | 2 | 740 | 28 | 285,400 | >2,000 |
| Terminal 9 North (CT9N) | HIT | 15.5 | 2 | 700 | 4 | 190,000 | >2,600 (N&S) |
| Terminal 9 South (CT9S) | MTL | 15.5 | 4 | 1,240 | 490,000 |
Planning is now underway to consider the building of Container Terminal 10 (CT10), with possible sites narrowed down to either southwest Tsing Yi or northwest Lantau, to the west of the airport.
Mid-stream
Mid-stream operation involves loading and unloading cargo containers at the container ship while at sea, with barges or dumb steel lighters performing the transfer, and then distributing or landing the containers to piers nearby. Due to the high cargo handling fees of the container terminals, Hong Kong has become the only place in the world with mid-stream operation.
Currently, there are 11 different yard sites solely for the mid-stream operation, occupying a total land area of 27.5 hectares and waterfrontage of 3,197 metres.
Ferry services
The Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal between Central and Sheung Wan and the China Ferry Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui provide centralised ferry services to Macau and 24 ports in the Mainland. About 100 vessels, mostly high-speed passenger craft such as jetfoils, catamarans and hoverferries, operate from these terminals. In 2001, 17.7 million passengers passed through the terminals, comprising 11.2 million passenger trips to/from Macau and about 6.5 million passenger trips to/from Mainland ports.
Government fleet
There are over 600 vessels of different types and sizes in the government fleet. About 152 vessels are major mechanised vessels serving under 16 government departments such as the Marine Police, Customs and Excise, and Fire Services. Some user departments operate and man their purpose-built vessels. The Marine Department itself controls about 100 vessels, including patrol launches, personnel carriers, pontoons, self-propelled barges and specialised vessels such as hydrographic survey launches and explosive carriers. These vessels provide support to the department’s own port operations or serve other departments which do not have their own fleet. The Government Dockyard is responsible for the design, procurement and maintenance of all vessels owned by the Government. It occupies a site of 980,000 m² on Stonecutters Island and has an 83,000 m² protected water basin as an operational base for vessels operated by the Marine Department. The dockyard has a ship-lift system and three ship-hoists capable of dry docking vessels of up to 750 tonnes. An on-line computerised information system is employed to co-ordinate the maintenance activities and support services to maximise maintenance efficiency and vessel availability.
Dry docks and slipways
There are extensive facilities for repairing, maintaining, dry-docking and slipping of all types of vessels. Two floating dry docks are located off the west coast of Tsing Yi Island and two northeast of Lantau Island. The largest is capable of docking vessels up to 150 000 tonnes in deadweight. There is also a large number of smaller shipyards, which carry out repairs to vessels and build specialised craft, including sophisticated patrol craft and pleasure vessels for overseas markets.
Port facilities and services
The Marine Department operates and maintains 58 mooring buoys for sea-going vessels. Of these 31 are suitable for ships up to 183 metres in length and 27 for ships up to 137 metres. There are 44 special typhoon mooring buoys to which ships can remain secured during tropical cyclones. This improves efficiency and reduces operational costs of vessels through elimination of unnecessary movements. In addition to the three Immigration and Quarantine Anchorages designated for visiting vessels to complete port formalities, there are eight dangerous goods and eight general-purpose anchorages providing temporary berthing spaces for vessels. The areas and water depths of the anchorages are diversified to accommodate different sizes and draughts of ships calling at Hong Kong. There are over 460 modern marine aids to navigation scattered throughout Hong Kong waters to guide mariners to and from their berths.
