Port cargo throughput decreased 14.3% YoY

The total throughput recorded was 213.7 million tonnes.

The 2021 total port cargo throughput decreased by 14.3% compared with the whole year of 2020 to 213.7 million tonnes. According to the Census and Statistics Department's vessels, port cargo, and containers statistics, inward port cargo and outward port cargo decreased by 20.6% and 0.7% compared with the whole year of 2020 to 134.9 million tonnes and 78.8 million tonnes, respectively.

Compared to 2020, double-digit increases were recorded in 2021 in the tonnage of inward port cargo loaded in Indonesia (+55.9%) and Vietnam (+23.0%). On the other hand, double-digit decreases were recorded in the tonnage of inward port cargo loaded in Taiwan (-56.1%), the mainland of China (-31.7%), and Korea (-18.0%).

For 2021 outward port cargo, double-digit increases were recorded in the tonnage of outward port cargo discharged in Korea (+30.8%), Taiwan (+22.7%), the Philippines (+21.5%), and Thailand (+11.7%). A double-digit decrease was recorded in the tonnage of outward port cargo discharged in the mainland of China (-12.2%).

In 2021, the port of Hong Kong handled 17.80 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) of containers, representing a decrease of 1.0% compared with the whole year of 2020. In this total, laden and empty containers decreased by 1.1% and 0.2% to 14.88 million TEUs and 2.91 million TEUs, respectively. Amongst laden containers, inward containers decreased by 2.6% to 7.76 million TEUs, whilst outward containers increased by 0.7% to 7.12 million TEUs.

Lastly, the number of ocean vessel arrivals decreased by 26.1% to 16,256 in 2021, with the total capacity also down by 29.5% to 245.1 million net tonnes. Meanwhile, the number of river vessel arrivals decreased by 29.8% to 46 221, with the total capacity also decreased by 33.7% to 57.1 million net tonnes.