Hong Kong's container port handled an estimated 1.185 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in September, up 24.9% from a year earlier, according to monthly data from the Transport and Logistics Bureau. That is the fastest year-on-year growth since February 2017, based on a Capital Times review of the bureau's monthly series. It followed an estimated 22.1% rise in August, giving the port back-to-back gains above 20%.

For investors, the numbers matter because port volumes had lagged the city's export boom. Hong Kong's goods exports rose 64.9% by value in September, the Census and Statistics Department said on Oct. 28, in a surge the government attributed to AI-related electronics. Through April, port throughput fell year on year every month even as export values climbed, leaving terminal operators and shipping lines largely outside the rally. The bureau's data do not show what kinds of goods filled the extra containers.

Kwai Tsing leads the rebound

The Kwai Tsing Container Terminals, which carry about three quarters of the port's traffic, handled 885,000 TEUs in September, up 25.3%, the bureau's data show. Terminals and mid-stream sites outside Kwai Tsing handled 300,000 TEUs, up 23.8%. August's estimated total of 1.278 million TEUs was the port's busiest month since March 2023, by Capital Times' count of the monthly series.

The detailed Kwai Tsing breakdown shows laden boxes rose 22.1% in September to 700,000 TEUs. Empty containers grew faster, up 39.3% to 185,000 TEUs, with inward empty boxes up 31.9% and outward empty boxes up 51.9%. By Capital Times' calculation, empties accounted for nearly a third of Kwai Tsing's year-on-year gain.

The comparison base is soft. September 2025 throughput fell 14.7% to 948,000 TEUs, its weakest month of 2025. Measured against September 2024, this year's figure is up about 6.6%, by Capital Times' calculation. Over the first nine months of 2026, the port handled roughly 9.95 million TEUs, about 2.8% more than a year earlier, based on Capital Times calculations from the monthly figures. That follows a 2025 total of 12.995 million TEUs, little more than half the 24.38 million TEUs handled in 2011, the highest annual total in the bureau's series.

The dataset notes that figures for the latest two months, now August and September, are estimates by the Hong Kong Maritime and Port Development Board secretariat, and earlier months can change: July, for example, appears as 1.107 million TEUs in the latest file against 1.088 million in the bureau's September summary publication.

The tonnage picture has been flatter. Total port cargo throughput slipped 0.2% to 42.3 million tonnes in the second quarter, the Census and Statistics Department said on Sept. 3, with seaborne cargo down 3.2% and river cargo, much of it on barges to and from the Pearl River Delta, up 4.8%. Inward cargo fell 3.8% while outward cargo rose 5.2%.

Hong Kong airport cargo grows more slowly

Air cargo, which carries many high-value electronics shipments, has grown more steadily. Hong Kong International Airport handled 433,000 tonnes of cargo in September, up 6.3% from a year earlier, Airport Authority Hong Kong said on Oct. 20. Transshipments rose 26.9% and imports rose 9.2%, with Southeast Asia and mainland China the main sources of growth.

Europe was a drag. The authority said volumes to and from Europe fell after the European Union removed its duty-free exemption for low-value parcels in July. Cargo for the first nine months rose 3.1% to 3.78 million tonnes.

The airport authority said on Nov. 1 that it had been named "Cargo Hub of the Year" at the Air Cargo News Awards in London and "Global Airport of the Year" at the Payload Asia Awards in Singapore. Steven Yiu, the authority's chief operating officer, said the added capacity of the three-runway system would help the airport keep its lead in what he called a highly competitive market.

From volume to value

The government is no longer betting on a return to the port's peak volumes. Hong Kong's first Five-Year Plan, covering 2026 to 2030, shifts port policy toward higher-value maritime and logistics services, Container News reported in September. The plan calls for automation and electrification at Kwai Tsing, a 30% cut in terminal emissions by 2030 from 2021 levels, and differentiated development alongside Shenzhen's Yantian port.

The recent rebound gives that strategy a stronger starting point. Two months of double-digit growth, however, follow more than a decade of decline, and part of September's gain reflects last year's slump and a rise in empty boxes.

The next test comes with the bureau's October estimate. October 2025 throughput was 1.096 million TEUs, down 4.4%, a firmer base than September's. By Capital Times' calculation, the port would need about 1.21 million TEUs in October to keep growth near 10%.