Taipei  - Kaohsiung Harbour has lost its position among the world's top ten busiest container ports due to strong competition from Chinese ports, according to a newspaper report Friday.

Data from China's China Shipping Gazette weekly showed that in 2008, the world's top-ten busiest container ports were Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Pusan, Dubai, Guangzhou, Ningbo, Zhoushan and Qingdao, the United Daily News reported.

Seven are Chinese ports and only three were outside China: Singapore, Pusan (South Korea) and Dubai (United Arab Emirates).

Kaohsiung has fallen from its No 7 place in 2007, but the Gazette did not reveal details below the top ten, so it was not clear exactly where the port stood in the world rankings.

Despite the global financial crisis which has hit the shipping industry, the top ten ports achieved single-digit growth in container volume, while Kaohsiung's container volume fell 5.66 per cent from 2007, becoming the only Asian port to register shrinking container volume.

Hsieh Ming-hui, director of the Kaohsiung Harbour, was concerned over the report but advised he would wait for another 2008 report on port rankings to be released by the British journal Containerization International in March.

Hsieh said that the Kaohsiung Harbour is expanding and will try to regain its place among the world's top-ten container ports.

"To jump, you have to squat first," he told the United Daily News, meaning Kaohsiung is ready to make a fresh start to compete with world's leading ports.

Kaohsiung Harbour, in south Taiwan, was the world's number 3 container port during the 1980s, but its ranking has been slipping rapidly in recent years as neighbouring countries, especially China, have expanded their ports or built new ports.

To revive its slumping economy, Taiwan lifted the six-decade ban on shipping links with China in December 2008, which is expected to boost container volume.

The Kaohsiung Harbour is also building a deep-water container terminal to accommodate large vessels. Its five container terminals include one at 14.5 metres deep, the deepest. The new terminal, called International Container Terminal, will have four 16m berths which will be operational by 2013. (dpa)