Maritime consultancy firm Drewry has suggested that a significant shortage of global container terminal capacity relative to demand still remained.

But it said breathing space had been created in some regions by high levels of investment in container terminal infrastructure and equipment being made by global terminal operators and by slowing of demand growth in US and European locations.
Neil Davidson, Drewry’s director for ports, comments, “Over the past 18 months we have seen a large number of new container terminal development projects confirmed and this will have a positive impact on the utilisation of terminal capacity over the next five to six years. At the same time, demand growth has eased in certain key locations such as the USA and Europe.”
While the forecast shortage of container terminal capacity has eased over the past 12 months, data collated by Drewry underline the fact that further investment is still required to avoid potential bottlenecks, especially in certain key geographical regions. In three areas, the Middle East, South Asia and East Europe, Drewry forecasts that by 2013 container throughput will exceed available capacity, if further projects are not brought on stream. The biggest gap between supply and demand is likely to be in Eastern Europe.
Davidson suggests there is no room for complacency. “While there has been an improvement in the forecast outcome, more needs to be done to address the tight supply/demand balance that is likely to occur in certain parts of the world over the next few years. Even with the credit crunch, there is still a capacity crunch. That is evident now in places like the Middle East, South America, the Baltic, the Black Sea, India and Asia. And it will return to places like North America and Europe unless port operators keep their foot on the gas.”
Drewry says findings in the report are vital reading for operators and investors, including port authorities, stevedores, terminal operators, container shipping lines, financial institutions, market analysts and port equipment suppliers. It demonstrates that most of the leading global container terminal operators have put robust investment programmes in place and this is reflected in the data for 2007. Indeed, of the top 20 global container terminal operators, 14 increased available terminal capacity by more than 10 per cent between 2006 and 2007.
Davidson adds: “It is significant that some of the fastest growing operators in terms of terminal capacity are carrier-based. This suggests an ongoing strategic drive by shipping lines to control and expand terminal capacity to meet the needs of their core shipping businesses.”
Drewry expects APM Terminals - a sister company to Maersk Line - will consolidate its position as the leading provider of terminal capacity in the period to the end of 2013, while the Cosco Group of China is expected to be involved in bringing on-stream more capacity than any other global terminal operator in this time frame. The report concludes that carrier-based operators generally are set to continue expanding capacity faster than other global container terminal operator groups over the next few years.
Drewry’s intelligence also measures the total throughput handled at facilities in which global operators have a shareholding of more than 10 per cent. By this calculation Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) is the world’s leading global container terminal operator, with a total throughput of 66.3 million teu, followed by APM Terminals with 60.3 million teu and PSA at 54.7 million teu. DP World and Cosco occupy fourth and fifth positions respectively by this measure.
The leading 20 global container terminal operators handled a total throughput of around 349 million teu in 2007, approximately 13 per cent more than in 2006, while world container throughput increased by around 12 per cent, to 494 million teu. By this measure, the top 20 global terminal operators had a market share of over 70 per cent in 2007.