Ports of Auckland, New Zealand, has announced a net profit after tax of NZ$37.2 million (26.49 million) for the financial year ended June 30, 2010, compared to NZ$5.4 million (US$3.85 million) for the previous financial year. Managing Director Jens Madsen said close management of costs (down 3.1 percent to NZ$113.8 million, or US$81.04 million) and improved container volumes through the port contributed to the strong financial result. Overall container volumes reached a new high of 867,368TEU, up nearly three percent, while full import volumes were up 4.2 percent. 

Seven-month container throughput of Los Angeles (USA) increased by 16.8% compared with Jan-Jul, 2010, to 4.39 million TEUs, the Port Authority statistics said. In July, container traffic via the port totaled 730.745 TEUs, a 26.82-percent rise over the same period in 2009. Port of Los Angeles is the largest seaport of the United States. The Port’s area covers 3.5 hectares. It has 27 freight terminals for bulk, liquid cargoes, containerized cargoes and autos. Last year, the port of Los Angeles handled 6.7 million TEUs. 

Container traffic at the port of Hong Kong (China) in January-July 2010 increased by 14.5% compared with the same period last year, to 13.4 million TEUs, the Port Authority press release said. The port’s largest Kwai Tsing terminal handled 9,826 million TEUs, or up 16.9% y-o-y. In July the port’s container trade increased by 9.7% as compared with last year’s July and 2% up from June this year.  

Georgia Ports Authority’s executive director Curtis Foltz announced that GPA handled more than 2.63 million TEUs, added new services and maintained its position as the fourth highest volume container port in fiscal year 2010. For the month of June, the GPA posted a 34 percent increase with 240,734 TEUs compared with 179,451 TEUs handled in June 2009. 

Shenzhen displaced Hong Kong as the world's third-busiest container port last month, (July 2010), - the first time this year - by moving a record 2.13 million TEUs compared to Hong Kong's 2.06 million TEUs. The mainland port's container throughput was higher on a monthly basis, though. It has always lagged behind Hong Kong on an annual basis, a status quo that may well change going by the current trend, reported the South China Morning Post. Shenzhen becomes the second mainland city to have overtaken Hong Kong in terms of container throughput. Shanghai, which surpassed Hong Kong in 2007, is now the world's busiest port, followed by Singapore and Shenzhen. 

The Cochin Port Trust has registered a growth rate of 23.1 per cent in cargo handling during April-June 2010 compared to the corresponding period last year. The statistics released by the Indian Ports Association (IPA), which assessed the performance of various Indian ports, pointed out that Kochi has made an increase of 826,282 tonnes in its cargo handling compared to the same period last year. In April-June 2009, the port had handled 3,655,974 tonnes of cargo which increased to 4,482,256 tonnes during the same period in 2010. According to IPA data, the general growth rate of various ports at the national level is 1.92 per cent. 

Iran Ports and Maritime Organization announced that the country's ports capacity is expected to reach 158 million tons annually in the next five years, compared with an existing 120 million tons. More than 35 percent of imports and exports have been carried out through domestic ports, the rest through border customs. Around 60 percent of the import and export activities through domestic ports were being carried out via Shahid Rajaee Port, which is located in southern Hormuzgan province.  

Trade flows via Port of Helsinki (Finland) increased in January-July 2010 by 8% y-o-y, to 6,179,000 tons, the Port Authority press release said. Exports of goods during the period rose by 17%, to 2,782,000 tons, imports volume - by 13%, to 2,850,000 tons Seven-month container throughput of the port grew by 12%, to 231,000 TEUs. Port of Helsinki is one of the largest ports in Finland. A similar press release by the Port's Authority has said that trade flows via Port of Helsinki in the first half of this year fell 11% compared with January-June last year, to 5.37 million tons.  

Egypt's Suez Canal recorded on Friday August 13, 2010, the highest daily revenue since the start of the global financial crisis near the end of 2008, a senior official said recently. The revenues of the canal hit 18.7 million U.S. dollars on August 13, 2010, which is the highest daily revenue since December 2008, Suez Canal Authority (SCA) Chairman Ahmed Fadel said. Payloads transiting the canal on the day made a record of 3.35 million tons and the number of ships that crossed hit 65 vessels, which is the highest rate in two years, Fadel added in a press release. 

The tonnage of breakbulk cargo handled by the Port of Rotterdam in the first half of 2010 increased by 21 percent, even stronger than the 18 percent increase reported earlier, the Port of Rotterdam Authority said. According to the most recent throughput figures for the first six months of 2010, the port handled a total of 3.3 million metric tons. Incoming volume rose 23 percent to 2.3 million metric tons, and outgoing volume was up 17 percent to 1 million metric tons. 

The Port of Tanjung Pelepas, the biggest transhipment port in Malaysia, is confident of achieving its cargo volume target of 6.5 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) this year, supported by the expected increase in East-West trade. Deputy chief executive officer Azlan Shahrim said the port’s volume for the first half of the year stood at 3.2 million TEUs – a 13% jump compared with the same period last year. “Based on current trends, we expect to finish the year with about 6.5 million TEUs compared with 6 million TEUs last year. This is in line with the growth forecast for the transhipment industry of between 5% and 10% this year,” he added. 

Seven-month cargo volume handled by the state-run Odessa Commercial Sea Port (OCSP, Ukraine) shrank by 10.2% year-over-year, to 14 million 474.1 thousand tons, the OCSP’s press release said. January-July, the company transshipped 7,873.400 tons of dry cargo, 16% down from Jan-Jul, 2009, and 6.6 million tons of bulk cargo (-2,2%). Container throughput surged by 42% in the reporting period to 189,839 TEUs.  

The volume of container cargo handled at South Korea's seaports jumped in July, as economic recovery resulted in a hike in trade. The volume of containers totaled 1.68 million TEUs last month, up 20.8 percent from the same period a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs. This marked the second largest amount recorded for a month following 1.71 million TEUs in May of this year. Since April, monthly figures have stayed over 1.6 million TEUs. Busan, the nation's largest port city located on the southeastern coast, handled 1.23 million TEUs of container cargo in July, which was 21.7 percent higher than the previous year. 

The volume of goods passing through the Port of London recovered in the first six months of this year after a downturn in 2009, it has been announced. The port handled 23.3 million tonnes of goods in January-June 2010 - a 1.3% rise on the figure for the first half of last year, the Port of London Authority (PLA) said. In the whole of 2009, London handled 45 million tonnes, 14% down on 2009 and the lowest annual amount since 1992. PLA chief executive Richard Everitt said: "This result today is consistent with the modest recovery in economic activity that we have seen since the middle of last year. 

The government has designated two mega-ports as "International Freight Strategic Ports," which are to receive high-priority in budget allocations in an attempt to transform them into powerful international shipping hubs Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister Seiji Maehara announced that "Hanshin Port" (consisting of Osaka and Kobe Ports) and "Keihin Port" (Tokyo, Kawasaki and Yokohama Ports) have been chosen as the strategic ports. The designation is part of the financially-squeezed ministry's efforts to shift from a strategy of investing in ports equally to focusing resources on a few particular ports. 

Global marine terminal operator DP World announced it handled 23.7 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent container units) across its portfolio of 50[1] operating terminals in the first six months of 2010, an increase of 16% against the same period last year and ahead of 2008. Despite the tough comparative period, due to the resilience our portfolio showed in 2009, our consolidated terminals have continued to build on the growth reported in the first quarter of the year. Volumes in the first half have grown 7% to 13.2 million TEU or, on a like for like basis, by 10%. 

There was 25 percent growth in container volumes handled at Colombo port during the first six months of this year, reported Daily News (Sri Lanka). "However, we need to compare the 2008 performance as the industry did not perform well last year. The growth recorded in 2008 was 15 percent, Sri Lanka Ports Authority managing director Nihal Keppetipola said. The Colombo Port will have a capacity of 5.5 million TEUs when its development work is completed. 

Container volume at the Port of Charleston jumped almost 34 percent in June over the previous year, the fourth straight month of double-digit increases, the South Carolina State Ports Authority said. Buoyed by new shipping services and major new investments in the area, container volume increased 19 percent during the first six months of 2010 over the same period a year ago. But this was not enough to lift volume in the period above that of the previous year for the port’s full fiscal year ending June 30. In the 12 months ending June 30, Charleston handled 741,208 pier containers, 5.2 percent below the levels in fiscal 2009. 

Egypt will maintain current transit fees for the Suez Canal, the longest man-made waterway, until at least the end of the year, the chairman of the Suez Canal Authority said. “We will make a decision on whether or not to change the tolls at the end of the year,” Ahmed Fadel told reporters in the northeast city of Ismailia earlier last July. Egypt depends on the waterway for foreign currency, along with revenue from tourism and foreign direct investment. Revenue gained in January for the first time since November 2008 as the global economy recovered from recession. 

Slowed property development in Abu Dhabi hit container traffic at Port Zayed in the first half of the year but cargo volumes rose, helped by infrastructure projects and higher vehicle imports, a senior port official said recently. The port handled 206,866 containers, down 7 percent, and 2.98 million tonnes of general cargo, an increase of 12 percent, said Julian Skyrem, acting chief executive of Abu Dhabi Terminals. There was a 62 percent jump in vehicles handled, rising to 32,177 from 19,809. The number of cruise passengers rose by 52 percent to 111,407 from 73,113, he said. 

Shanghai port reported an 18.8-percent year-on-year rise in container throughput in the first half amid strong economic recovery and booming trade. The country's largest port handled a record 13.86 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) containers, the Shanghai border inspection authorities said in a statement. The port's container throughput would likely beat the earlier projection of 25.5 million TEUs for the whole of 2010, it said. The Waigaoqiao port area saw container throughput up 13.5 percent to 7.23 million TEUs in the first half. The Yangshan port area recorded an increase of 30.6 percent to 4.7 million TEUs.