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Hong Kong’s effort to rebuild itself as an international shipping centre continues.
The territory’s Legislative Council met yesterday to debate a motion by lawmaker Yiu Cho-fai to strengthen Hong Kong’s shipping ecosystem in the face of competition from neighbouring ports on the Chinese mainland.
Hong Kong’s secretary for transport and logistics, Chan Mei-po, told the council a multi-pronged strategy was being implemented, including cooperation with ports in the Greater Bay Area, namely those in Macau and Guangdong province, particularly Yantian.
“Hong Kong’s port continues to serve as a key transhipment hub and ‘time-stopping port’, thanks to its free port status, fast customs clearance, high efficiency, and strong international network,” Ms Chan claimed.
In 2025, containerships spent an average of just 1.03 days in Hong Kong Port, far less time than the 1.99-day average of the world’s top 20 container ports, she claimed.
“We’re deepening our integrated rail-sea-land-river transport system, allowing goods from inland provinces and cities such as Chongqing and Chengdu to be transported via rail-sea intermodal transport through Yantian Port or Guangxi, and then transferred to the Kwai-Yantian Link barge service, or ‘daily service’, to be loaded onto ships in Hong Kong.
“The process can be completed in as little as three days, allowing goods to be exported to overseas markets via Hong Kong, significantly improving logistics efficiency.”
Ms Chan said Hong Kong’s Kwai Tsing Container Terminal and Yantian, due to their different shipping routes served and complementary strengths, could generate mutually beneficial effects through cooperation.
In August 2024, The Loadstar observed that, as container throughput in Hong Kong had seen a long-term downward trend, particularly with rising competition from Shenzhen and Nansha, the special administrative region had chosen to align with, or operate through, these growing Chinese ports rather than relying solely on traditional transhipment in Hong Kong.
Despite its efficiency at handling containerships, Hong Kong’s box volumes declined for the fourth consecutive year in 2025, to 12.99m teu, compared with 13.69m teu in 2024.
Hong Kong’s faded prominence is a far cry from its halcyon days in the 1990s, when it often competed with Singapore to be the world’s busiest container port.
The Hong Kong government is also encouraging the industry to seize development opportunities in the Central and South American markets to build high-end import brands.
Ms Chan cited the seasonal Cherry Express service, which transports cherries from Chile to Hong Kong and then to wholesale markets in South China within hours, as a one success story.
Besides cooperating with mainland Chinese ports, the Hong Kong government has been working on digitalising its port. In January, the port community system was launched as the core digital infrastructure for smart ports. Using AI, blockchain, and big data technologies, the system provides 24-hour real-time cargo tracking, connecting sea, land, and air transport information.
“Within just four months of the system’s launch, the number of registered businesses has exceeded 6,000,” said Ms Chan.
“The logistics data within the system has also been recognised by nine local banks, thus facilitating the digital flow of trade and capital,” she added.
