Taiwan International Ports Corporation (TIPC) on 21 April inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Japan’s Naha port to enhance co-operation.
This is TIPC’s first MOU with a Japanese port, which aims to seek new opportunities for shipping services between Japan and Taiwan.
Currently, Taiwan has cruise services between Okinawa, Japan, and Keelung, Taiwan, and opened a weekly cargo service from Kaohsiung to Naha in June 2014, which was conducted by Ryukyu Shipping’s cargo carrier.
TIPC’s seven ports (Keelung, Taichung, Kaohsiung, Hualien, Taipei, Su’ao, and Anping) have handled a total of 740 million tonnes of cargo in 2014, rising 6.97% than the previous year, and their total container volume stood at 15.05 million teu, 10.59 million teu of which was handled by Kaohsiung along, up 6.6% year on year (y/y).
Passenger volume of the seven ports increased by 40% y/y in 2014, amounting to 1.38 million people, 0.72 million people of which were cruise passengers, 30% more than that in 2013.
Okinawa prefecture’s Naha port, is located 600 km southwest of Japan’s main island and in the middle of the East China Sea. It is close to Shanghai and in between the ports of Busan and Kaohsiung. It is the gateway to Okinawa prefecture, supporting the economic activities of more than 40 surrounding islands. The port operates 50 routes including international container services for North America and Asia.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.