SINGAPORE — Hutchison Port Holdings Trust (HPHT) expects a month-long strike by about 450 workers at its Hong Kong berths to end soon, with operations returning to normal within six to eight weeks, company officials said yesterday.

At a press briefing in Singapore, where HPHT is listed, Chief Executive Gerry Yim said: “We are now 80 to 90 per cent of normal ... with an average of around 86 per cent.”

He said that a deal with the workers, who are employed by its contractors, was expected to be reached soon. He added that the 12 per cent rise being offered to the workers over the next two years — 7 per cent this year and 5 per cent next year — by the contractors was “good”.

The striking workers had earlier demanded a 23 per cent rise, which HPHT Chairman Canning Fok described as “ridiculous”. Dow Jones Newswires reported Mr Wong Yu-loi of the Union of Hong Kong Dockers, which represents the striking workers, as saying yesterday that the group was hopeful the month-long strike would end in a week to 10 days because of the lowered demands.

Mr Fok, who questioned the true motives of the striking workers, said demand for the jobs performed by them — mainly stevedoring and crane operations — was high as the strike had highlighted the attractiveness of their pay to other Hongkongers. On average, the workers earned between HK$18,000 (S$2,900) and HK$22,000 a month, compared with the HK$15,000 earnings of a Hong Kong cab driver.

Mr Fok said that the impact on the financial performance of HPHT, which reported a 16 per cent rise in net profit to HK$2.29 billion last year, was expected to be “minimal” as the striking workers comprised only 10 per cent of its total workforce of 4,500, two-thirds of whom are supplied by external contractors.

Singapore’s PSA International has a 10 per cent stake in HPHT and 20 per cent in its parent company Hutchison Port Holdings.