Hong Kong’s port cargo throughput up 1% in 2024

Overall, the volume of activity increased despite a slight decrease in cargo entry.

Hong Kong’s total port cargo throughput increased by 1% to 176.7 million tonnes in 2024, according to data from the Census and Statistics Department.

The government said this improvement was logged amidst a 0.5% decrease in inward port cargo to 111.1 million tonnes, and a 3.9% increase in outward port cargo to 65.6 million tonnes.

In the fourth quarter alone, total port cargo throughput increased 1.1% to 44.3 million tonnes. Broken down, inward port cargo decreased by 3.5% to 27.3 million tonnes, whilst outward port cargo increased by 9.6% to 17.1 million tonnes.

The data also showed that within port cargo, seaborne cargo decreased by 4.1% to 110.5 million tonnes, whilst river cargo increased by 10.9% to 66.2 million tonnes.

There were double-digit increases in the tonnage of inward port cargo loaded in Korea (+29.4%) and Singapore (+21.4%), whilst there were decreases in the US (-27.5%), Indonesia (-26.9%), Malaysia (-21.0%), Vietnam (-18.3%), Thailand (-16.0%), and Japan (-15.8%).

For outward port cargo, data showed increases in Vietnam (+15.3%), Mainland China (+12.6%), and Taiwan (+11.5%). On the other hand, double-digit decreases were recorded in the Philippines (-32.2%), Japan (-19.2%), Malaysia (-16.0%), Thailand (-13.4%) and the US (-10.9%).

Last year, the port of Hong Kong handled 13.69 million twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) of containers, down 5% from the previous year.

Broken down, laden, and empty containers decreased by 3.4% and 10.6% to 10.93 million TEUs and 2.76 million TEUs, respectively. Amongst laden containers, inward and outward containers decreased by 3.3% and 3.5% to 5.85 million TEUs and 5.08 million TEUs, respectively.

Ocean vessel arrivals, meanwhile, decreased by 2.5% to 18,395, with the total capacity also decreasing by 3.2% to 291.9 million net tonnes. Meanwhile, the number of river vessel arrivals increased by 12.1% to 82,194, with the total capacity also increasing by 13.5% to 84.8 million net tonnes.

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