Abstract: Based on the group for the port in Hong Kong and some coastal ports in China’s mainland, the concentration ratio and Herfindahl-Hirschman index of the container throughputs were used to analyze the status of the port and shipping industry in Hong Kong in the port group. Compared with the ports in China’s mainland in the port group, the pace of development of the port and shipping industry in Hong Kong has gradually slowed down and lagged behind that of China’s mainland. And then, the standard deviation ellipse of port container throughput was used to get that the center of gravity of port transportation in the port group has been transferred from Hong Kong to China’s mainland. The reason why the port and shipping industry in Hong Kong will make such a change is mainly due to the implementation of the relevant economic policies in Hong Kong and China’s mainland. The study found that: 1) The free port policy in Hong Kong has played a huge role, and the free port policy in Hong Kong indirectly increased the volume of cargo of Hong Kong port and promotes the development of its port and shipping industry. The policy of reform and opening up in China’s mainland made the port and shipping industry in Hong Kong a further improvement and the pace of development of the port and shipping industry ranked the top in the world. Because China’s mainland ports were not able to meet all their export needs during the construction phase, and at the same time, under the attraction of the free port policy, most of China's goods choose to import and export from Hong Kong. 2) The increased export demand of China has stimulated the rapid development of ports in China’s mainland. Since its accession to the WTO, the ports of China’s mainland and Hong Kong have taken the share of the export demand of China. Although Hong Kong's free port policy has led Hong Kong to assume greater export volume, the pace of development of both is at a fair level. 3) After the implementation of the bonded port policy and the tax rebate policy in the ports of China’s mainland, the tax advantages of Hong Kong port is gradually weakened. The competitiveness of ports in the mainland surpassed that of Hong Kong and the export demand undertaken gradually surpassed that of Hong Kong Port. Namely, the port and shipping industry in Hong Kong has experienced three development stages: rapid growth from the 1970s-1990s, solid growth from 2000-2005, and sluggish growth from 2006-2015. However, economic policy is not the only factor that affected the development of the port and shipping industry in Hong Kong. The fluctuation of the port and shipping industry in Hong Kong is also greatly related to the current decline of the global shipping industry and the tendency of the ports moving from centralized to balanced. Although the development of the port and shipping industry in Hong Kong is lagging behind at present, the implementation of the strategy of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Bay Area will be an opportunity for the further development of the port and shipping industry in Hong Kong.

Key words: Port and shipping industry, market concentration, container throughput, economic policy, Hong Kong