Interim Report 2023

7 INTERIM REPORT 2023 Affected by the global economic and trade and international shipping industries, the growth of the global port industry was sluggish as a whole, with major hub ports experiencing different levels of decline in the container volume. The shipping consultancy Drewry expected that the global port throughput would grow by 1% in 2023, and by 3% from 2024 to 2027. The data from the shipping consultancy Alphaliner showed that the world’s top 20 ports achieved a total container throughput of 83.43 million twenty-foot equivalent unit (“ TEU ”), down by 11.7% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023. Apart from positive growth of Dubai in the Middle East and Busan in Northeast Asia, all other regional ports decreased in varying degrees. Among them, the ports in the Greater China region achieving throughput of 51.54 million TEUs, down 0.25% year-on-year; ports in Southeast Asia achieving throughput of 11.07 million TEUs, down 2.0% year-on-year; and ports in Europe and North America achieving throughput of 6.33 million TEUs and 5.35 million TEUs respectively, representing year-on-year declines of 8.8% and 29.9%. In contrast, the main indicators of China’s port industry performed well in the first six months of the year. According to the data published by the Ministry of Transport of China, the accumulated cargo throughput handled by ports in Mainland China in the first six months of 2023 totaled 8,189 million tonnes, representing a year-on- year increase of 8.0%. Its accumulated container throughput was 149.19 million TEUs, representing an increase of 4.8% year-on-year, of which the coastal ports handled the accumulated cargo throughput of 5,332 million tons, representing a year-on-year increase of 7.3%; its accumulated container throughput of 130.88 million TEUs, representing a year-on-year increase of 4.2%. BUSINESS REVIEW Ports operation In the first half of 2023, the port business was in line with the general trend of the industry and increased its market share in major regions. The Group’s ports handled a total container throughput of 66.50 million TEUs, up by 0.3% year-on-year. Among which, the Group’s ports in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan contributed an aggregate container throughput of 49.96 million TEUs, representing an increase of 1.2% year-on-year, which was mainly driven by the Yangtze River Delta region and the Bohai Rim region. A total container throughput handled by the Group’s overseas ports decreased by 2.1% year-on-year to 16.54 million TEUs. Bulk cargo volume handled by the Group’s ports increased by 0.2% year-on-year to 270 million tonnes, among which the Group’s ports in Mainland China handled a total bulk cargo volume of 267 million tonnes, representing an increase of 0.3% year-on-year.