PORT DEVELOPMENT
The Port Land and Transport Committee advises the government on land required to support port cargo handling facilities. This includes land for ancillary port operations and transport systems required to ensure smooth movement of cargo to and from the port. The shortage of land for mid-stream operations was one of its main concerns during the year under review.
The Container Handling Committee provides data, analyses and advice to the government on container handling facilities. It examines worldwide containerisation trends, Hong Kong's position in the Asia-Pacific Region and the increased potential for containerisation in China.
A working group was also established in 1992 to examine institutional arrangements for future port development.
Future Growth
The PDB's Port Cargo Forecasts Study of 1993 found that total port traffic would continue to grow by 6.7 per cent a year between 1992 and 2011, when total throughput would reach 349.4 million tonnes. This would comprise 207.6 million tonnes of inward cargo and 141.8 million tonnes of outward cargo. More than 75 per cent of the cargo would be carried by ocean-going vessels and the rest by river vessels.
Trans-shipment traffic would account for seven per cent of the ocean traffic in 2011, a substantial decrease from the 20 per cent in 1992.
Analysed by commodity, inward cargo carried by ocean-going vessels in 2011 would consist mainly of petroleum products (31 per cent), coal (12 per cent), and chemical and related products (10 per cent). About 47 per cent of the cargo is expected to be containerised, 31 per cent liquid bulk, 18 per cent dry bulk, and four per cent break-bulk.
Outward cargo would comprise mainly manufactured articles (40 per cent), machinery and transport equipment (19 per cent), and petroleum products (14 per cent). Analysed by cargo type, 83 per cent of the cargo would be containerised, 14 per cent liquid bulk and three per cent break-bulk.
From these figures, a preliminary estimate is that by 2011, the new port will need at least 17 additional container berths, each with a quay length of 320 metres; about 9 600 metres of cargo-working seafrontage; some 300 hectares of land for back-up areas; and about 4 000 hectares of buoy and anchorage area to support port operations.
The board has also concluded that the new port infrastructure must include ship repair facilities to service the growing fleet of ocean-going vessels calling at Hong Kong. Besides servicing these vessels, such repair facilities will ensure that the port can recover quickly from a major maritime accident or from storm damage.
Ship repairing is among the oldest industries in Hong Kong, and the PDB has recommended planning a dockyard industry supporting a minimum of eight floating or dry docks (supported by alongside berths or finger piers) by the mid-1990s, with flexibility to increase the number of docks to at least 10 by 2006.
Port Layout at Lantau
In October 1989, the government announced that both the new airport and new port would be built on Lantau Island. Although its Port and Airport Development Study (PADS) determined the general site of the port, stretching southeast from Penny's Bay on Lantau towards Hong Kong Island, the study did not decide its exact pattern.
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