The world’s number one shipping group will not renew the leases on two of its four berths at the port of Kaohsiung in Taiwan, which has seen declining business, as traffic moves to South Korea and China, Reuters reports.
The Taiwanese port has been steadily losing trade, falling from thesixth busiest-ranked port in the world in 2006 to eighth position in2007, attributed to shifting distribution, rising fuel prices and aslowing world economy.
Kaohsiung officials have reportedly proposed leasing a berth adjacent to the two remaining Maersk slips to the shipping group, and moving current occupant Hyundai to the two newly vacated positions.
Maersk and Chinese port officials finished the joint construction of three new berths in Xiamen harbour at the end of 2007.
