Taipei - Taiwan's Kaohsiung Harbor may slip out of the world's top ten owing to a fall in container volume while other major ports show robust growth, Taiwan radio said Tuesday.

Broadcasting Corp of China (BCC), quoting a Transport Ministry report, said that in the first three months in 2008, Kaohsiung Harbour, the world's seventh-busiest container port, handled 7.52 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent unit), down 0.79 per cent year-on- year.

In the same period, with the exception of Los Angles Port and Long Island Port, all major foreign ports saw their container volume grow.

Among them, Singapore Port and China's Shanghai Port and Ningbo Port maintained double-digit growth.

For 2008, Singapore Port, Shanghai Port and Hong Kong Port will remain the world's top three container ports, BCC said.

The Chinese port of Ningbo and Guangzhou were expected to overtake Kaohsiung as their January-August container volume grew 17.59 and 29.7 per cent respectively. Qingdao, another Chinese port, lags behind Kaohsiung by only 50,000 TEUs.

Hsieh Ming-hui, director of the Kaohsiung Harbour, said its world ranking could slip out of the top ten or even top 12 by the year-end.

Kaohsiung, in south Taiwan, used to be the world's third-largest container port in the early 1990s.

It has lost its competitiveness owing to Taipei's five-decade ban on direct shipping with China, as foreign liners began to ship cargo directly from China to the West.

In 2007, Kaohsiung handled 9.8 million TEUs, up 4.7 per cent from 2006, the smallest growth, along with Rotterdam, among the world's top container ports.

Currently Kaohsiung is the world's seventh-largest container port after Singapore, Hong Kong, Snanghai, Shezhen, Busan and Rotterdam. (dpa)