Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) recently released a forecast report on world's top 20 container ports this year. The report predicts that most ports in the world will experience slowdown in their growth due to slackening economy while China's will continue to maintain growth, Xinhua reports.
CAS scientific research director Wang Shouyang said the Euro-debt crisis and gloomy world economy will continue to cast shadow on world's container shipping market.
Being an important trade partner for Europe and America, China will also be inevitably affected by their depressed economies. CAS experts expect to see more pronounced slowdown in China's container shipping demand this year if Euro-debt crisis continue to deteriorate.
CAS also forecasts that the box throughput of China's top 10 ports will continue to rise but growth will continue to lose ground.
Predictions also pointed out that gap between different regions will become wider with throughput growth in Bohai Rim and Yangtze River Delta faster than in the Pearl River Delta.
CAS also predicts that eastern China's port of Dalian will become the fastest growing port in the world with an increase rate of about 24 per cent. Shanghai's throughput will continue to stay on the top of the world with about 33.2 to 33.6 million TEU, up 4.9 to 6.2 per cent. Tianjin will break into the top 10 list. Chinese ports and will account for half of the world's top 20 ports, says CAS.