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SCMP Reporter

IT is encouraging to see the Government finally taking notice of the problems arising from the delay in developing container Terminal 9 (CT9).

  The biggest of these will be congestion on roads leading to the Kwai Chung container terminals.

  But the shipping community would have liked Secretary for Economic Services Gordon Siu Kwing-chue to do something more practical than admit that delay in opening the first berths at CT9 is now inevitable.

   His remarks at the Far Eastern Economic Review conference that the Government must focus on ways of minimising the impact of this delay on port operations and traffic conditions in the Kwai Chung area sounded somewhat vague.

  The Government should start by immediately granting the extra land that Hongkong International Terminals (HIT) and Modern Terminals Ltd (MTL) have asked for.

  The sooner they get the land, the sooner they will be able to make use of it, ahead of the summer rush when terminals are inundated with Christmas shipments.

  HIT and MTL say that with the extra land they will be able to handle an additional one million containers a year.

  In fact, HIT, the largest terminal operator in the territory, has already reached capacity on land, although it still has some spare capacity on the quayside.

  Terminal operators can continue to operate by using road space as backup, but that would give the impression to outsiders that Hong Kong's container port is a Mickey Mouse operation.

  But it seems that asking for land from the Government is like asking for the moon.

  One fails to understand Government's reluctance to grant the land when the terminal operators are prepared to pay for it and are ready to accept all sorts of conditions regarding its future use.

  For a number of years, Hong Kong has vied with Singapore for the title of the world's busiest container port.

  For the past two years, Hong Kong has been number one.

  Last year, Hong Kong handled more containers than all British ports put together.

  This year, container throughput is expected to top 10 million containers.

  Only the United States and Japan handle more containers than Hong Kong.

  The Port Development Board has forecast that throughput will continue to grow at a rate of 14 per cent a year during the coming years.

  In other words, it will double every five years, reaching a staggering 32 million units by 2011.

  Total cargo throughput is projected to rise from 116 million tonnes last year to 350 million tonnes by 2011.

  These projections will not be realised if some progress is not quickly made in starting to build CT9, which has become a hostage of the political impasse between China and Britain.

  MTL managing director Mark Leese said at the same conference that ports were not built in a day, but they could be built incrementally to match the growth in throughput.

  A long-term look at the port's future was completed in 1989 as part of the Port and Airport Development Strategy study.

  No weakness has been found in those plans.

  ''Since we knew in 1989 where the new terminals should go in the years ahead, it is amazing that we now face a serious shortage of capacity in 1995,'' Mr Leese said.

  Terminal operators are right in saying such things have come to pass not because the industry failed to react in time, but because the Government has failed to do a deal with the industry.

  Two years after the Government called for proposals to construct CT9, there is still no agreement between them and the proposed developers on terms of its lease.

  The authorities in Beijing said that their endorsement of arrangements would be necessary, but this has not been forthcoming.

  CT9 is at a standstill, but the containers still keep coming.

  While Mr Siu was talking yesterday, Orient Overseas International Ltd made the long-awaited announcement that it had placed orders for six of the world's largest container ships, worth about US$484 million.

   This is the sort of investment that shows confidence in the future of trade in the region.

  Asian trade is the fastest growing in the world, and Hong Kong has always been a leader.

  It must not be let down now by a shortage of port capacity.



Need some action on terminal problem