Trans RINA, Vol 161, Part A4, Intl J Maritime Eng, Oct-Dec 2019


16 meters for large container vessels (i.e., containerships with a capacity of approximately 14,000 TEU). Under the main channel of Kaohsiung Port, there is a cross-harbor tunnel that renders berths to its north unavailable for container vessels with a draft of more than 14 meters, whereas berths south of the tunnel are restricted by a turning basin and narrow channel. Larger containerships with a capacity of more than 14,000 TEU must therefore satisfy a number of limiting conditions (e.g., draft, load, climate, and tugboats) to safely call at the port and unload containers. Moreover, the container terminals are dispersed across the port, rendering interconnected transshipment activities impossible. For example, Evergreen, YML, and HMM each have their own wharves at different container terminals, and so transshipment containers must be transferred to different terminals using either a trailer or a ship, thus adding to transshipment operating costs. Moreover, the terminal conditions and docking arrangements of each operator differ considerably, causing excessive congestion at some terminals while other terminals remain idle. The port’s total capacity therefore cannot be fully utilized or increased further (MOTC, 2017; MOTC, 2016). Given the upsizing trend in ships, global shipping carriers are actively building large container vessels capable of carrying more than 20,000 TEU, which are too large to enter the Port of Kaohsiung. Therefore, to prevent the risk of marginalization, the port has already launched construction of a seventh container terminal that is deeper and larger than the other six.


According to statistics published on the websites of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD, 2018) and Alphaliner (2018), ships with a capacity of more than 10,000 TEU accounted for only 6% of global ship capacity in 2010, but 23% in 2015 and 33% in 2018, indicating a significant upsizing of container ships. If major port terminals fail to keep pace with this ship upsizing trend, carriers will most likely deploy their shipping lines and dock their vessels elsewhere (Gomez Paz, Orive and Cancelas, 2015). The Port of Kaohsiung is also facing this problem because the number of large vessels docking here has been increasing annually since 2010 (MOTC, 2017), as shown in Figure 4. Data published on the TIPC website indicate that 312 container ships with a capacity of More than 13,000 TEU and 119 container ships with a capacity of 10,000–12,999 TEU called at the Port of Kaohsiung in 2017. Therefore, to prepare for upsized container ships and attract ocean liners, a seventh container terminal outside the second port entrance is currently under construction and investment plans are under way. The seventh terminal is expected to be completed by October 2020, offering five wharves with a pier depth of up to 18 meters for large container ships with a capacity of over 20,000 TEU. Moreover, it will have a total pier length of 2,415 meters and a container yard of roughly 147 hectares, which should provide a loading capacity of approximately 4.5 million TEU per year for the Port of Kaohsiung. Figure 5 shows the location and operating conditions of the seventh container terminal.


Container Terminal No.1: Lien Hai (42/43) No.2: Wan Hai (63/64), OOCL (65-67) No.3: APL (68/69), YML (70) No.4: EMC (115-117), HMM (118/119), TIPC(120/121) No.5: HMM (76-78), EMC (79-81) No.6: KMTC (108-111) No.7: Under construction


Figure 3: [Location of container terminals at the Port of Kaohsiung]


©2019: The Royal Institution of Naval Architects


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