Port of Kaohsiung
Taiwan

World port ranking
#12 container port (9,676,554 TEUs)
#23 in total cargo volume (146,729 metric tons)
(Source: AAPA's 2008 World Port Ranking)

Trading with Tacoma
(based on 2009 volumes, value in U.S. dollars) 

Value of trade between Taiwan and Tacoma

• Two-way trade = $1.8 billion
  Ranks #4 among Port of Tacoma's international trading partners
• Exports = $492.9 million
  Ranks #4 among Port of Tacoma's export trading partners
• Imports = $1.3 billion 
  Ranks #4 among Port of Tacoma's import trading partners

Top 5 Exports from Port of Tacoma to Taiwan

1. Cereals - $93.5 million (522,059 short tons)
2. Meat and edible meat offal - $48.5 million (39,954 short tons) 
3. Inorganic chemicals and rare earth metals - $40.3 million (1,955 short tons)
4. Paper and paperboard - $38.7 million (54,668 short tons)
5. Edible fruit and nuts, citrus fruit or melon peel - $33.5 million (34,070 short tons)

Top 5 Imports from Taiwan to Port of Tacoma

1. Electrical machinery and electronics - $537.4 million (26,894 short tons)
2. Articles of iron or steel - $144.5 million (69,188 short tons) 
3. Industrial machinery - $131.5 million (15,862 short tons)
4. Vehicles, except rail or tram, and parts - $123.6 million (19,175 short tons)
5. Plastics and articles thereof - $59.6 million (26,183 short tons)

About the Port of Kaohsiung 

Location
The Port of Kaohsiung lies on the southwestern shores of the island of Taiwan, about 180 kilometers south of the Port of Taichung. It is adjacent to Kaohsiung City, and surrounded by the city districts of Gushan, Yancheng, Lingya, Cianjhen, Siaogang and Cijin.

History
Called Ta-kou by the Chinese who settled the area in the later Ming Dynasty, the site of the port was a small fishing village and home to the indigenous Makato tribe. It was known as Tancoia by the Dutch who dominated from 1624 to 1660 and began to develop the harbor.

Real growth of the port began in the late 1600s, when it was called Ch'i-hou, after the Chinese had regained the island. By 1684, under the Qing Dynasty, the port's harbor had been improved dramatically and it was an important distribution center for the Kaohsiung and Pingtung areas. The port became a treaty port (open to foreign trade) in 1863, and a customs station in 1864. After that, it grew steadily in importance as a port for south Taiwan.

The harbor was developed by the Japanese from 1904 to 1907. They named it Takao in 1920 and made the port a municipality at the same time. It was quickly overcome with commercial traffic. The port was used by Japan as an important military base for its World War II campaigns in the Pacific and Southeast Asia. The port was destroyed as a result of the war. In 1945, the Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau (KHB) was established to take charge of the task of the restoration work of the harbor. Habor restoration was completed in 1955, the same year Taiwan came under the administration of the Republic of China.

In 1958, the KHB began a 12-year project to reclaim 544 hectares of shoreline to facilitate the rapid increase of trade. The construction of the second harbor was completed in 1975, allowing thousands of ships to freely pass through. The development of The Chungtao New Commercial Harbor in 1980 added 27 deep-water wharves and two shoal water wharves. At the same time, the Kaohsiung Export Processing Zone, Chienchen Fishing Port, Linhai Industrial Park were being developed. Due to heavy container volume, the Container Terminal N.5 was put into construction and completed in 1990.

Today, the Republic of China is actively promoting the Port of Kaohsiung as an Asia-Pacific transshipment shipping center, a global logistics management center and a free port. The port's major goals include developing the Kaohsiung Free Trade Zone, encouraging shippers to extend routes, pushing forward the first and second phases of construction of the Intercontinental Container Terminal, and persuading shipping companies to continuously improve their performance.

Land and infrastructure
The Port of Kaohsiung is in excellent condition and well-equipped with facilities. The harbor water is 16 meters deep, and Port 1 and Port 2 are designed for the use of 30,000-ton and 100,000-ton boats with an 18-kilometer long passageway. The 116 piers can be used by 153 boats simultaneously, with a throughput of 100,000,000 tons. The port has over one hundred berths with a total length exceeding 23,400 meters to handle all types of cargo. It has 65 warehouses and transit sheds that can store over 929,000 tons of cargo, and seven outdoor yards that can handle more than 35,000 tons.

Management
Administrated by Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau, a division under the Ministry of Transportation of Executive Yuan, the central government of Taiwan (Republic of China).

Exchanges between Tacoma and Kaohsiung

Fall 1988: Port of Kaohsiung delegation visits Tacoma. Delegation members included Adminral C.Y. Yuan, director of Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau; Li Yao-Ching, chief of harbor management fepartment; Liou Rong-Yuh, chief of stevedoring and warehousing; Liu Jih-Feng, section chief of the business department.

May 2001: Port of Kaohsiung delegation visits Tacoma. Delegation members included The Honorable Yun Chien Lin, deputy mayor of Kaohsiung; Mr. Hsiao Ming Ma, deputy chief of Kaohsiung City Protocol Office; Mr. Ray Beam Dawn, president of Bank of Kaohsiung; and Andrew Yang of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Seattle.

August 2007: Port of Kaohsiung delegation visits Tacoma. Delegation members included Mr. Shieh Ming-Hui, director general of the Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau, and his spouse, Mrs. Lin Li-Hsiang; Mr. Cheng Chien-Yu, director of the Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau; and Mr. Chen Rong-Shin, manager of the Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau.

Our other sister ports:  Belawan, Indonesia  |  Kitakyushu, Japan  | Tianjin, China  |  Vladivostok, Russia    

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