en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China is reshaping its status as an international shipping hub through a multi-pronged strategy. The Hong Kong Legislative Council recently debated a motion tabled by lawmaker Yiu Cho-fai, discussing how to strengthen the local shipping ecosystem against the backdrop of intensifying competition from neighboring ports.
At the Legislative Council, Secretary for Transport and Logistics, Mable Chan, stated that authorities are implementing a multi-faceted strategy, including cooperation with the Macao Special Administrative Region and Guangdong Province ports (particularly Yantian Port) within the Greater Bay Area. She noted that Hong Kong, leveraging its free port status, rapid customs clearance, high efficiency, and strong international network, still plays a key role as a transshipment hub and a "time-call port."
Chan revealed that the average dwell time for container ships at Hong Kong Port in 2025 was just 1.03 days, significantly lower than the average of 1.99 days for the world's top 20 container ports. Hong Kong is deepening its rail-sea-land-river multimodal transport system, allowing cargo from inland cities like Chongqing and Chengdu to be transported via rail-sea intermodal services through Yantian Port or Guangxi for transshipment, and then shipped to Hong Kong for loading via the Kwai Tsing-Yantian shuttle barge service. The entire process can be completed within as fast as three days.
She emphasized that the Kwai Tsing Container Terminals and Yantian Port serve different shipping routes and have complementary advantages, making their cooperation mutually beneficial. However, Hong Kong's container throughput declined for the fourth consecutive year in 2025, dropping to 12.99 million TEUs (down from 13.69 million TEUs in 2024).
The Hong Kong government is also encouraging the industry to seize market opportunities in Central and South America and build high-end import brands. Chan cited the seasonal "Cherry Express" service as an example, where Chilean cherries can be distributed to wholesale markets in South China within hours of arriving in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, the government is advancing port digitalization: the Port Community System launched in January this year utilizes artificial intelligence, blockchain, and big data technologies to provide 24-hour real-time cargo tracking, connecting sea, land, and air transport information. Just four months after its launch, the system has already registered over 6,000 enterprises, and the logistics data within the system has been recognized by nine local banks.
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