Hong Kong port cargo throughput up 6% in 2008

Hong Kong's total cargo throughput rose 6 percent year on year in 2008 to 259.4 million tons, with a sharp decline in the fourth quarter reading that even dipped to negative ground, the Census and Statistics Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government said Monday.

Inward port cargo throughput for the year as a whole rose 3 percent to 146 million tons, while outward throughput rose percent to 113.4 million tons.

In the fourth quarter, the total port cargo throughput dropped 6 percent year on year to 61.3 million tons, with a decline of 6 percent in the inward throughput and 5 percent in the outward cargo throughput, the department said.

On a seasonally adjusted quarter-to-quarter comparison, cargo throughput fell 10 percent in the fourth quarter, with a decline of 8 percent in the inward cargo and 12 percent in the outward port cargo, showing sharp decline in the short term.

Source: Xinhua