Port authorities in Shenzhen are working aggressively to persuade foreign carriers to omit Hong Kong as a transit hub and do business directly with them.
Shenzhen is well-placed to surpass Hong Kong as the world’s third busiest container port this year. The city could replace Hong Kong as the region’s primary transshipment hub for goods, port operators warned.
Last year about 60 per cent of Hong Kong’s container shipping throughput came from transshipments. Half of it was because o regulations on the mainland which bans foreign shipping companies from directly sending cargo from one mainland port to another. The regulation is designed to protect the monopoly of domestic shipping lines on the near-sea trade.