Container throughput at Shenzhen ports, the worlds third-largest container port, declined in the January to February period as the impact of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic start reflecting on numbers. 

The Hong Kong Shippers' Council said comprehensive statistics from Shenzhen Port Authority, saw the cumulative container throughput of Shenzhen Port dropping by 12.8% from January to February this year to 3.459 million TEUs.

The proportion of heavy and empty containers was 63.86% and 34.14%, it added, of which the heavy case was 2.32 million TEUs, a decrease of 12.30%.

The heavy case imports and exports were 689,900 (import) and 15.436 (export) 10,300 TEUs, which were 4.21% and 15.48% lower than the same period last year. The empty cases were also down by 13.66% to 1.26 million TEUs.

From January to February, among the three major container port areas of Shenzhen Port, Yantian Port area completed 1.61 million TEUs, a year-on-year decrease of 18.66%; Nanshan Port Area had 1.74 million TEUs, a year-on-year decrease of 6.46% (among which, Shekou Container Terminal was 0.9058 million TEUs, a year-on-year decrease of 6.26%.

Chiwan Container Terminal saw volumes at 762,200 TEUs, a year-on-year decrease of 5.77%; China Merchants Port Affairs (65,800 TEUs, a year-on-year decrease of 16.09%); and Dachan Bay Port Area volumes declined by 13.45% to ​​145,900 TEUs.

From January to February, the cargo transportation volume of Shenzhen Port reached 32.226 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of 13.07%, of which the volume of foreign trade cargo transportation was 25.054 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of 10.24%.