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inaugurated last month to the United States has been fully
booked from the start, and the Company anticipates that
additional capacity for Hong Kong cargo as it becomes
available over the next few months will also be fully booked.
If container facilities are available in Hong
7.
Kong, the port is likely to build up a substantially
increased transhipment business. At least two shipping
lines have already indicated that, if sufficient container-
handling facilities are available they would wish to make
Hong Kong their transhipment centre for South East Asia.
Honourable Members might also wish to note the advantages
which Hong Kong possesses in this regard with respect te
her traditional entrepot trade in Chinese goods. For
political reasons, Taiwan would be unable to handle this
traffic and Singapore, which is reported to be making a
bid to become the containerisation centre for the Far East,
is too distant. It may, therefore, be expected that
shipping companies will be keen to ensure that adequate
facilities will be available in Hong Kong at an early date.
Honourable Members will, however, wish to note that,
should U.S. carriers undertake to operate services to
non-U.S. ports, because of embargo restrictions they would
be unable to carry Chinese transhipment cargoes.
8.
Honourable Members may wish to note that in the
last few weeks several shipping lines have made known to
Government representatives their plans for investing in
specialised container-ships for service on trade routes to the
Far East, and have enquired into the possible availability
of container-terminal facilities here. Among the more
significant of these approaches have been the following:-
(a) Sea-Land Services Inc.
Sea-Land Services Inc., a U.S. company, have
expressed a strong interest in developing
/container
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