Port operator Cosco Pacific is benefitting from its diversification policy and has managed to turn in a 6.4% rise in throughput to 7.85m teu across all its ports in March from 7.38m teu in the previous corresponding period.

The star performers were the key Bohai Rim region with a 4.3% rise in throughput to 2.78m teu signalling a recovery to trend growth, and a 14.4% spike in the Southeast Coast ports reflecting good 33.6% and 14.7% gains at Xiamen Ocean Gate Container and Quan Zhou Pacific Container terminals respectively. These were however from low sub-100,000 teu bases and only amount to 83,600 teu for the former and 108,100 teu for the latter.

Overall performance for the group was also helped by a slowing of the decline to 0.8% in the Yangtze River Delta from the 3.8% and 4.9% drops in the preceding two months of the year as well as the turnaround to a 5.4% rise in volumes at the other key region, the Pearl River Delta, to 1.96m teu from persistent declines in the first two months of the year too, especially an almost 10% drop in February.

Notably the growth was driven by good rises in volume at the group's southern China ports of Yantian, Nansha and Guangzhou, which saw 10.1%, 6.3% and 6.5% rises respectively. As reflected in the port of Hong Kong figures, Cosco Pacific's terminals in the city continue to flounder, posting falls of 12.5% and 15.9% at its Cosco-HIT and Asia Container terminals respectively.