Kaohsiung Harbor chief urged to be tough to restore port’s glory
Written by Writer on Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
Kaohsiung Harbor chief urged to be tough to restore port’s glory
KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan — Kaohsiung Harbor chief was urged Monday to be strong enough to rev up the performance of Taiwan’s largest international harbor so that it could recover the appeal and status it had a decade ago.
Kaohsiung Harbor Administrator Hsieh Ming-hui was urged at a budget-screening meeting at the Legislative Yuan to show his muscle and not to dodge his responsibility as chief of the harbor to do whatever is needed to improve the seaport’s performance.
Ruling Kuomintang Legislator Huang Chao-shun, from Kaohsiung, said it is unbelievable that Kaohsiung Harbor, the world’s third largest container seaport in the 90s, might be ranked 12th this year, behind even China’s Qingdao Port.
For his part, Hsieh said the performance of Kaohsiung Harbor has indeed regressed as a result of the global economic downturn, with its container handling capacity falling 1.7 percent in the period January-October this year.
However, Hsieh said, an agreement that top negotiators across the Taiwan Strait signed in Taipei Nov. 4 to open shipping links between Taiwan and China might give a boost to Kaohsiung Harbor.
Under the agreement, Kaohsiung could engage in shipping operations with 28 Chinese seaports, Hsieh said, adding that this could help Kaohsiung Harbor to rally.
The agreement allows for commercial vessels from both sides to sail directly across the Taiwan Strait between 11 Taiwanese and 63 Chinese ports without having to detour through Ishigaki, Okinawa.
The agreement is not expected to be implemented until it has cleared the Legislative Yuan.
Officials from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) said recently that the ministry will do whatever it can to help Taiwan seaports solicit transshipment business, once the green light has been given for the cross-strait direct shipping links to open up.
The government has invested NT$16.1 billion (US$50.31 million) to build an intercontinental container hub at Kaohsiung Harbor, in anticipation that international consigners will make Kaohsiung one of their top choices for global transshipment operations.
When the intercontinental container hub is completed, hopefully by 2010, Kaohsiung Harbor will be able to accommodate 10,000-ton container ships and its capacity could be increased by an additional 3 million TEUs, said the MOTC officials.
The Kaohsiung port, a natural deep-water harbor, can serve as a good intercontinental gateway to Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, the Taiwan Strait, and the Pacific Rim, they added.
Kaohsiung Harbor is centrally located on a shipping map that encompasses the six major seaports in the Asia-Pacific region, namely Tokyo, Shanghai, Kaohsiung, Manila, Hong Kong and Singapore, the officials noted.
With the opening of cross-strait direct shipping links, the sailing time for one-way trips from Taiwan to the Chinese mainland will be reduced by half, according to MOTC research.
With fuel costs also expected to drop because of the shorter travel distance across the Taiwan Strait, the shipping lines’ costs for cross-strait operations are expected to fall by 15 percent to 30 percent, MOTC officials said.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008 10:26 am TWN, CNA
