Hong Kong’s port container throughput reached 5.6 million TEUs (20-foot-equivalent units) in the fourth quarter of 2012, a decrease of 9 percent year-over-year, according to the Census and Statistics Department.
Of this, laden containers contracted by 9 percent to 4.8 million TEUs, while empty containers also dropped by 8 percent to 0.8 million TEUs. Import containers decreased by 7 percent to 2.4 million TEUs, while export containers dropped by 11 percent to 2.4 million TEUs.
For the entire 2012, container volume dipped 5 percent compared with 2011 to register 23.1 million TEUs. Within this total, laden containers decreased by 5 percent to 19.7 million TEUs, and empty containers by 6 percent to 3.5 million TEUs.
Among laden containers, import containers decreased by 5 percent to 9.8 million TEUs in 2012 from 2011, while export containers dropped by 6 percent to 9.8 million TEUs.
Port cargo throughput, meanwhile, decreased by 6 percent to 66.3 million tonnes for the fourth quarter of 2012 compared to the year earlier. Inbound shipments dropped 4 percent to 37.6 million tonnes and outbound cargo slid 9 percent to 28.7 million tonnes.
For the whole of last year, cargo volume shrank by 3 percent from 2011 to 269.3 million tonnes, with inward cargo sliding by 2 percent to 154.7 million tonnes and outward port cargo falling by 4 percent to 114.6 million tonnes.
Photo: Artist in doing nothing
