Hong Kong Air cargo Terminals Limited (Hactl) released its tonnage figures for May 2009. A total of 177,980 tons were handled last month, down 18.6% year-on-year. Cumulative tonnage for the first five months of the year was 815,803 tons, down 23.0% compared with the same period last year.

Import volume for May registered a 16.4% decline on a year-on-year basis to 49,597 tons. Aggregate import volume for the first five months was 219,345 tons, down 21.8%. Market outlook for Western countries continues to be gloomy: the import volume from Europe and the States decreased 19.7% and 16.5% year-on-year respectively.

Export volume for May and for the first five months were 90,637 tons and 417,387 tons respectively, down 23.3% and 27.5% year-on-year. Despite the sharp decline of over 30% of export tonnage throughput to Europe, export cargoes to Middle East and Africa registered a 21.0% and 21.5% year-on-year growth respectively.

The transshipment volume was 37,746 tons in May, recording an 8.3% decline compared with last year. Cumulative transshipment tonnage for the first five months was 179,071 tons, down 11.6% year-on-year.