Within this total, inward and outward port cargo rose seven percent and 12% compared to a year earlier to 37.2 million tons and 30.1 million tons respectively.
In the first nine months of 2008, total port cargo throughput increased by 10% compared to a year earlier to 198.1 million tons. Within this total, inward and outward port cargo rose by seven percent and 14% to 111.6 million tons and 86.5 million tons respectively.
On a seasonally adjusted quarter-to-quarter comparison, total port cargo throughput recorded virtually no change in the third quarter of 2008. Within this total, inward port cargo decreased by one percent, while outward port cargo rose by one percent. The seasonally adjusted series enables more meaningful shorter-term comparison to be made for discerning possible variations in trends.
Within port cargo, seaborne and river cargo grew by three percent and 25% compared to a year earlier to 46.2 million tons and 21.1 million tons respectively in the third quarter of 2008.
In the third quarter of 2008, the port of Hong Kong handled 6.7 million TEUs of containers, up seven percent compared to a year earlier. Within this total, laden and empty containers rose by seven percent and nine percent to 5.5 million TEUs and 1.2 million TEUs respectively. Among laden containers, inward and outward containers grew by nine percent and five percent to 2.7 million TEUs and 2.9 million TEUs respectively.
In the third quarter of 2008, the number of ocean vessel arrivals decreased by three percent year-on-year to 8,830, with the total capacity decreasing by one percent to 93.5 million net registered tons. Over the same period, the number of river vessel arrivals decreased by five percent to 45,630, with the total capacity decreasing by one percent to 24.7 million net registered tons.
