Port operator Cosco Pacific is succumbing to the ongoing downturn in the container shipping industry, with a 3.5% drop in throughput in February to 4.9m teu compared to 5m teu in the previous corresponding period and accelerating from a 0.7% fall in January.

Similar to January's figures, among the worst hit regions was the Yangtze River Delta ports, which fell 10.3% to 667,500 teu but the bottom of the pool was unsurprisingly finally joined by the Pearl River Delta ports which fell 13.4% to 1.2m teu.

The usual suspects, Cosco Pacific's two big Hong Kong terminals, Cosco-HIT Terminal and Asia Container Terminals, were the hardest hit, falling 33% and 31% respectively. In the Yangtze River Delta Ningbo Yuan Dong Terminals was the worst performer, with throughput falling 31%, just slightly better than the 33% drop the month before.

Even at the most vibrant region so far, the Bohai Rim ports have seen their growth slow to just 1.1% from the 3.7% pace in January. Volume at Tianjin Five Continents International Container Terminal plunged 38% to just 121,300 teu in the holiday-shortened month of February.

The only bright spots were at the Southeast Coast ports which grew 2.5% after falling 9% in January. However, these ports are among Cosco Pacific's newest and start from very low bases. They handled just 276,100 teu as a whole.

Meanwhile the overseas ports also did well, growing 8.2%, although there were big differences in the performances among the individual overseas investments, which Cosco Pacific has spread over quite a diverse geographical area.

Terminals in Piraeus and Singapore did well, growing 22% and 12% respectively. However its Suez Canal Container Terminal and Antwerp Gateway terminal fell 13% and 11% respectively.