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Joon San

Wong Joon San

The Hong Kong Shipowners' Association has urged shipowners to refrain from speculative vessel building.

  Association chairman George Chao said shipowners should be prudent about ordering new ships.

  Mr Chao's call comes as shipping lines increasingly order bigger container vessels, expanding capacity and pushing down already-low freight rates.

  Taiwan's Evergreen Marine Corp recently said it would continue an aggressive fleet-expansion programme with the purchase of another 30 container vessels at an estimated cost of about US$1 billion by 2000.

  Speaking at the Freight Industry Symposium '97, Mr Chao said the shipping market had in the past been characterised by long, slow-moving cycles.

  These would shorten in the next century due to the rapid growth of efficient communication systems and improved shipbuilding technology, he predicted.

  The shipping industry had to use technology to benefit customers and bring stability to the trade, he said.

  With difficult conditions ahead, Mr Chao said shipowners would continue to advocate the lowering of trade tariffs and the widening of global free trade so that old vessels could be scrapped and new vessels operated by better-qualified crew.

  Shipowners had to recognise fully their responsibilities for the safety of lives at sea and for the protection of the ecology.

  'In order to achieve these obvious objectives, we have to earn reasonable freight rates,' he said.

  There was also a pressing need for the industry to invest in more sophisticated crew training and to comply with ever more onerous international legislation.

  Modern Terminals senior general manager Michael Sandpearl told the symposium that, while the future of Hong Kong was bright, the main threat to its continuing dominance was the high cost of doing business in the territory.

  Handling costs were among the highest in the world due primarily to high land and wage costs and the absence of any form of government subsidies, he said.

  Richard Yuen Ming-fai, Deputy Secretary of Economic Services and Port Development Board Secretary, said Hong Kong's geographical position made it the region's natural sea transport hub.

  Unlike Singapore, which was a transshipment port, Hong Kong had direct exports which were being manufactured in factories in Guangdong province operated mainly by the territory's businessmen, Mr Yuen said.

  Hong Kong's throughput of 13.4 million teus last year underlined its position as the leading port.

  Mr Yuen said port development board forecasts showed that if Hong Kong's throughput grew by one million teus annually, the container terminal facilities planned on North Lantau would not be sufficient to cope in the next century.

  There would be plenty of cargo for the neighbouring ports such as Yantian, Shekou and Chiwan, he said.



Shipowners warned against speculation