ENG-1991 — Page 289

TRANSPORT

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relation to the port is to ensure that conditions exist for ships to enter port, work their cargoes and leave as quickly and safely as possible.

The Director of Marine is the Pilotage Authority and is advised by the Pilotage Advisory Committee. The authority has wide powers to regulate and control the pilotage service although the pilots themselves operate as a private company. Tugs are also privately owned and operated. Ships over 5000 gross registered tonnes are required to engage pilots to enter the port.

Immigration and quarantine facilities for vessels calling at Hong Kong are available round the clock at the Western Quarantine Anchorage. At the Eastern Quarantine Anchorage, these services are available between 6 am and 6 pm daily and, in the case of the quarantine service, on request through the Vessel Traffic Centre of the Marine Department. These services, including advance clearance, may be applied for by radio.

The Marine Department provides and maintains 71 mooring buoys within the port for ships to work their cargo in the stream. There are two classes of buoy suitable for vessels of up to 183 and 137 metres in length respectively. The majority of these are typhoon moorings to which vessels may remain secured during tropical storms, thus reducing operational costs.

A variety of harbour craft play a significant role in the efficient running of the port. During the year over 2 100 lighters and 350 motorised cargo boats transported cargo to and from ocean-going ships moored at the anchorages and buoys in the harbour, and private or public cargo working areas ashore.

In 1991, some 129 300 ocean-going vessels and river-trade vessels called at Hong Kong and loaded and discharged more than 104 million tonnes of cargo. This included 83 million tonnes of general goods from ocean-going vessels, of which 50 per cent was containerised cargo.

The port handled 6.16 million TEUS (20-foot equivalent units) of containerised cargo in 1991. Expansion of container terminal facilities continued apace, with construction of Terminal 8 commencing at the end of the year. This terminal, with a capacity of 1.6 million TEUS, is to be formed by reclamation at the north-western part of Stonecutters Island. Its first berth is scheduled to come into operation in 1993. Planning for the construction of Terminal 9 is progressing well with the first berth required sometime in 1995.

The port has served Hong Kong's needs well. But it will not be able to cope, in its present form, if the growth in traffic volume experienced over the past decade continues as anticipated. In view of this, plans are being drawn up to develop future container terminals and other marine facilities on Tsing Chau Tsai peninsula on Lantau Island over the next decade.

(Details of Port Development are given in Chapter 1 of this Report.)

Consultation to reach consensus with the users and operators of port facilities has always been an important factor in Hong Kong's economic success. The private sector is fully represented on important committees which advise the government on port policy, port operations and land-related issues relevant to container terminals. The massive and diverse development of the port over the next decade will require a great deal of detailed consultation on all aspects of port planning and development, including land, marine and transport aspects. A Port Development Board was established in 1990 for this purpose. Membership of the board is drawn from a cross-section of shipping, government, commercial and port user interests.