6.32
6.33
6.34
private terminals at Tsim Sha Tsui and North Point. The throughput of these two terminals is, however, only expected to be about 1 million tons/annum total import and export, so that even if they do come into operation, a substantial demand will remain for Kwai Chung. For this reason, the Container Committee have concluded that consideration of these two private projects should not hold up the proposed Kwai Chung Terminal.
At container terminals in other parts of the world, the practical limit of throughput per containership berth has been found to be only million tons per year combined import and export. The limiting factor has been (e) in para. 6.27, i.e. the rate at which cargo can be moved between the marshalling area for the berth and the packing stations or factories. In those cases, most of the packing is carried out away from the terminal and to increase the rate of cargo handling at these ports with the methods worked there, would have meant increasing the container-storage areas at the terminal to an amount considered uneconomic or impracticable. The result has been that the berth occupancy by container- ships has been less than 30%,which is only a fraction of the occupancy achieved with conventional berths at the same ports.
It is considered that accepted methods of working in Hong Kong would enable con- siderably higher container-berth throughputs to be achieved than elsewhere. This factor already accounts for conventional ships being turned round in less than half the time taken in most other ports. It is doubtful, however, whether the full theoretical throughput calculated in 1966 could be achieved, but even if the capacity in Hong Kong is found to be as low as 2 million tons/berth/year combined import and export, there is already a potential demand for two berths at Kwai Chung and demand for a further 2 berths can be expected to arise within about 10 years. This last figure is based on the 1966 pro- jections of annual container traffic and allows for the operations of the proposed terminals at Tsim Sha Tsui and North Point.
As noted already, a throughput of 2 million tons/berth/year is higher than found elsewhere and implies a high rate of berth occupancy, which could best be achieved by operating on a common-user basis. If a berth is used by a single shipping company, the throughput may well be only 1 million tons/year and the demand for the third and fourth berths would arise correspondingly earlier.
6.35 Throughput per berth would, of course, be affected by interruptions to working caused by bad weather. Records show that No. 3 Local Storm Signal, warning of strong winds, has been hoisted on an average of about 6 days per year and Signal No. 5, 6, 7 or 8, gale-force winds, on about 3 days per year.
6.36
It is likely that loading of containerships would continue for part of the period during the year when No. 3 Signal is hoisted, but would definitely stop as soon as or before Signal No. 5 or higher is hoisted. On average, therefore, between 3 and 9 working days would be lost because of tropical-storm winds each year. It is unlikely that strong-monsoon winds, as such, would interrupt the working of a container terminal.
6.37 Compared with general-cargo working, container operations would be less vulnerable to interruption by rain. It is thought that about 3 working days per year might be lost because of this, making on average a total of between 6 and 12 days per year lost on account of wind and rain. This would apply to any container terminal in Hong Kong.
6.38
At Kwai Chung from the considerations in paragraphs 5.28 to 5.34 of this Report, it would seem that loading and unloading of containerships would on occasions be slowed down and possibly interrupted by swell. From the information at present available it is calculated that this is likely to occur on an average of 7 to 14 days per year. Even if the turn-round time of a ship is lengthened this would not necessarily mean that the annual throughput of a berth would be reduced as this depends also on a number of other factors.
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