Cargo throughput at HK ports dropped 14% in Q1

Total port cargo throughput amounted to 49.2 million tonnes during the quarter.

The total port cargo throughput declined by 14% to 49.2 million tonnes in the first quarter of the year, compared to the same quarter in 2020, the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) reported.

Total inward port cargo decreased 18.1% to 31.9 million tonnes, whilst outward cargo dropped 5.1% over the quarter.

Within port cargo, seaborne and river cargo were down by 4.1%to 34.2 million tonnes and 30.3% to 15 million tonnes over the same quarter.

Within the inward cargo, imports and inward transhipment decreased 26.3% to 18 million tonnes and 4.3% to 13.9 million tonnes, respectively.

For the outward port cargo, exports and outward transhipment also saw decreases of 2.2% to 4.2 million tonnes and 5.9% to 13.1 million tonnes.

Moreover, the C&SD reported that double-digit increases in the tonnage of inward port cargo loaded in Indonesia +89.3%), Vietnam (+19.0%) and Singapore (+12.1%) were recorded. Whilst decreases were seen in Taiwan (-70.8%), Korea (-26.6%), the mainland of China (-24.8%) and the United States of America (-18.5%).

As for the outward port cargo, double-digit increases were also seen in Korea (+44.3%), Macao (+33.7%), Taiwan (+13.8%) and Vietnam (+10.3%); and double-digit decreases in mainland China (-19.8%) and Thailand (-14.7%).

Read more from the C&SD report here.