News
Major shipping lines moved 1.125 million TEUs of containers in total among 13 countries and regions in Asia in June, which increased 2.1% from a year earlier and registered the first year-on-year growth in six months. In breakdown, dry cargo accounted for 1.06 million TEUs, which improved 1.6%, while the remaining 65,000 TEUs were reefer cargo, which surged 10.7%. In the first half (January-June), a total of 6.17 million TEUs were carried on the intra-Asia trade, which declined 4.7% from the corresponding six-month period of 2016.
From January to June, Japan exported 697,000 TEUs, which went down 9.2%, and imported 1.065 million TEUs, down 5.1%. Looking at containers from Japan by destination, those to northern China, central China, Fujian Province and southern China all shrank, going down 4.7% to 101,000 TEUs, down 23.3% to 63,000 TEUs, down 0.8% to 6,000 TEUs and down 2.8% to 57,000 TEUs. Exports to Hong Kong also diminished, falling 5.9% to 63,000 TEUs. In contrast, those to Taiwan climbed 6.8% to 102,000 TEUs.
Containerized shipments destined to Southeast Asia did not perform well, either. Those to Vietnam went down 3.9% to 52,000 TEUs; those to Thailand, down 9.2% to 79,000 TEUs; those to the Philippines, down 7% to 22,000 TEUs; those to Malaysia, down 22.6% to 36,000 TEUs; those to Indonesia, down 23.9% to 33,000 TEUs and those to Singapore, down 16.4% to 14,000 TEUs.
As for imports to Japan, meanwhile, those from northern China came down 11.7% to 132,000 TEUs and those from central China, down 11.5% to 18,000 TEUs. On the other hand, those from Fujian came up 9% to 60,000 TEUs; those from southern China, up 2.9% to 176,000 TEUs and those from Hong Kong, down 16.5% to 42,000 TEUs. As it concerns shipments from Southeast Asia, those from the Philippines diminished 13.5% to 40,000 TEUs, but those from Taiwan improved 5.8% to 90,000 TEUs. Those from Vietnam fell a minute 0.1% to 65,000 TEUs. Containers from Thailand declined 4% to 86,000 TEUs, but those from Malaysia soared 16.8% to 41,000 TEUs.
