Growing competition from cheaper mainland ports kept Hong Kong as the world's No 2 container port in 2006 for a second year as Singapore again filled the top spot.

Preliminary figures supplied by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore show that the Lion City's various ports handled 24.79 million TEU last year, an increase of 6.9 per cent over 2005.

The estimates from Hong Kong's Port Development Council show that the SAR's container throughput last year grew by 2.8 per cent to 23.23 million TEU compared to 22.60 million TEU in 2005. The 2006 growth rate was similar to that in the previous.

Most of Hong Kong's boxes last year, totalling 14.28 million TEU, went through terminals operated by Hutchison Whampoa, PSA International of Singapore and other operators, representing a year-on-year rise of 6.4 per cent. Other Hong Kong terminals, including mid-stream operations, accounted for 8.31 million TEU, a drop of 2.8 per cent compared to 2005.

A Bloomberg report said Hong Kong fell behind Singapore because of increasing investments in Shenzhen, Shanghai and other Chinese ports, which led to the diversion of containers from the city's harbour.

The report also said that Shanghai is on course to surpass Hong Kong as well this year after the first phase of the new US$16 billion Yangshan deepwater port, which began operations in December 2005, helped boost its container volume 21 per cent in 2006.

Chinese ports are adding capacity to tap the nation's rising sea cargo demand, and Yangshan is expected help double the city's container handling capacity to 30 million boxes by 2010.

Shenzhen, the world's fourth busiest container port, boosted its container traffic 14 per cent last year to 18.5 million boxes, the report added.