Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited (Hactl) recently announced its tonnage throughput for September, the third quarter and the first nine months of 2009.

September tonnage further stabilized with a total of 212,391 tons handled, registering a milder drop of 4.3% year-on-year. Tonnage performance in the third quarter also showed clear improvement compared with last quarter, with a total of 620,358 tons handled, down 6.3% year-on-year. Tonnage throughput for the first nine months of the year was 1,624,116 tons, representing a cumulative year-on-year drop of 16.3%.

Export volume was 117,045 tons for September and 328,305 tons for the third quarter, down 7.0% and 10.3% year-on-year respectively. Cumulative export tonnage for the first nine months of the year was 842,484 tons, down 20.5% against the same period of last year.

Import volume continued to improve in September with a growth of 8.5%, totaling 57,634 tons. Import from USA and Europe showed a satisfactory growth of 9.3% and 10.2% respectively in September. Total import volume in the third quarter was 169,064 tons, up 3.2% against last year whilst the cumulative import volume for the first nine months dropped 12.4% year-on year with a total of 439,546 tons.

The transshipment volume was 37,712 tons for September and 122,989 for the third quarter, registering a year-on-year decline of 12.1% and 7.0% respectively. Total transshipment volume for the first nine months was 342,086 tons, down 9.6% year-on-year.

Ms. Lilian Chan, General Manager, Marketing and Customer Service of Hactl said, "Further to the stabilizing tonnage, we are delighted to see our commencement of partnerships with four new customers that launched new services to Hong Kong in the third quarter. This certainly instills great confidence in the market and we are thankful to the vote of confidence in Hactl by our customers. Looking forward, we expect further tonnage improvement hopefully in a pre-Christmas peak and we will, as always, deliver our consistently high quality services to our customers.'

The summary of the import, export and transshipment volumes handled in September, the third quarter and the first nine months of year 2009 is tabulated as follows:

Tonnage handled by Hactl in September, the third quarter and the first nine months of year 2009

' September 2009 July to September 2009
(Cumulative)
January to September 2009
(Cumulative)
' Tonnage
(in tons)
Year-on-Year
Growth
Tonnage
(in tons)
Year-on-Year
Growth
Tonnage
(in tons)
Year-on-Year
Growth
Export 117,045 -7.0% 328,305 -10.3% 842,484 -20.5%
Import 57,634 +8.5% 169,064 +3.2% 439,546 -12.4%
Transshipment 37,712 -12.1% 122,989 -7.0% 342,086 -9.6%
Total 212,391 -4.3% 620,358 -6.3% 1,624,116 -16.3%