The terminals run by HPH Trust managed to outperform weak market conditions in 2015, falling just 1% to 23.9m teu from 24.2m the year before, it said in an announcement.

Among the individual terminals, Yantian International Container Terminal (YICT) in Shenzhen saw throughput grow by 4% outperforming the Port of Shenzhen’s throughput growth of 1%. Meanwhile combined throughput of HPH's Hong Kong terminals HIT, COSCO-HIT and ACT, fell just 6% compared to the 9% year-on-year drop at the Port of Hong Kong.

Over most of 2015, outbound cargoes to the US showed an upward trend but lost momentum in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, the decline in outbound cargoes to Europe continued but showed some improvement in the fourth quarter.

As for individual terminal performance, throughput growth at YICT was mainly driven by the US, transhipment and empty cargoes but was offset by declines in the Europe trades. HIT’s throughput drop was mainly due to weaker transhipment and intra-Asia cargoes

A keen focus on tariffs and cost improvements also helped revenue stay stable at HKD12.61bn ($1.62bn) just a touch down from HKD12.62bn in 2014.

In the fourth quarter, HPH also divested its interest in Zhuhai International Container Terminals (Jiuzhou) Limited, one of the river ports in which the group has an interest. The group received HKD347.2m from the sale and recognised a gain of HKD155.5m during the quarter.

Management remains cautious on expected cargo volume for 2016 given the soft global trade outlook and will continue to focus on improvements to tariffs and costs, HPH concluded.