The Census and Statistics Department of Hong Kong announced yesterday that the total port cargo throughput fell to 54.9 million tons in the first quarter of 2007, down two percent on the same period last year.

The inward port cargo fell seven percent to 32.4 million tons and outward grew six percent to 22.5 million tons.

On a seasonally adjusted quarter-to-quarter comparison, total port cargo throughput fell five percent. Within this total, inward port cargo fell nine percent and outward port cargo fell one percent.

Within port cargo, seaborne cargo grew one percent over a year earlier to 39.3 million tons, and river cargo fell nine percent to 15.7 million tons. Within inward port cargo, imports fell 16 percent over a year earlier to 17.4 million tons, and inward transshipment grew five percent to 15 million tons.

For outward port cargo, exports (including domestic exports and re-exports) fell 11 percent to 7.7 million tons, while outward transshipment rose 18 percent to 14.9 million tons.

In the first quarter, the port of Hong Kong handled 5.4 million containers. Within this total, laden containers rose 1 percent to 4.5 million, while empty containers fell five percent to 900,000. Among laden containers, inward containers fell two percent to 2.2 million, while outward containers grew five percent to 2.3 million.