XN000022-1995-02-22 — Page 5

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January sees another big rise in container throughput

The phenomenal growth in Hong Kong's container throughput continues. January figures for the eight container terminals at Kwai Chung and Stonecutters Island show an 18.43 per cent growth over the same month last year.

The terminals handled a total of 665,703 twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEUs) in the first month of 1995, compared with 562,126 in January 1994.

The 18 per cent growth for January comes after a year when Hong Kong's overall container throughput rose by just over 20 per cent to 11.1 million TEUs.

Of this total 7.2 million TEUS passed over the quayface at the eight terminals.

Difficulty in collating figures for mid- stream and river trade container traffic has delayed the release of official figures for total port throughput in Hong Kong.

The latest figures show that September was the third successive month that Hong Kong handled more one million TEUS in a month. In July, it became the world's first port to exceed the one-million-TEU-a-month figure.

Although the January figures show that demand on Hong Kong's container facilities continues to increase, they are not an accurate indicator of annual growth for 1995. Hong Kong's throughput tends to build up to a peak in the summer months.

Nevertheless, the January growth does highlight the urgent need for more container facilities in Hong Kong.

End/Wednesday, February 22, 1995

Deadline for proposals on Cordless Access Services extended

The Telecommunications Authority (TA) has decided to allow the deadline for submission of proposals for Cordless Access Services (CAS) be extended to 5 pm on June 30.

This decision is reached having considered:

the overwhelming support for a delay in submission of proposals by registered interested parties who have made known their views;