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Ocean vessel and seaborne cargo for the third quarter of 1996
In the third quarter of 1996, 10,487 ocean vessels with a total capacity of 46.2 million net registered tons entered Hong Kong, according to the statistics released today (Friday) by the Census and Statistics Department.
Compared with the third quarter of 1995, the number of vessels decreased by 2%, while capacity increased by 4%.
Net registered ton (NRT) is a unit measure in volume terms of the space of a vessel available for carrying passengers or goods. One NRT is equivalent to 100 cubic feet.
During the same period, there were 10 463 outgoing ocean vessels with a total capacity of 46.2 million net registered tons, representing a decrease of 3% in number and an increase of 4% in capacity over the third quarter of 1995.
In the third quarter of 1996, the total tonnage of seaborne inward cargo, comprising seaborne imports and seaborne inward transhipment, was estimated to be 22.0 million tonnes, representing an increase of 2% over the same quarter in 1995. Within this total, the tonnage of seaborne imports grew by 3%, while that of seaborne inward transhipment fell by 1%.
During the same period, the total tonnage of seaborne outward cargo, comprising seaborne exports (domestic exports plus re-exports) and seaborne outward transhipment, was estimated to be 10.5 million tonnes, representing a decrease of 1% over the same quarter in 1995. The respective declines in the total tonnage of seaborne exports and seaborne outward transhipment were 1% and 3%.
Of the seaborne inward cargo, 82% in terms of tonnage were seaborne imports and 18% were seaborne inward transhipment. 53% of these cargoes were containerised.
Of the seaborne outward cargo, 59% in terms of tonnage were seaborne exports and 41% were seaborne outward transhipment. 86% of them were containerised cargo.
The above statistics are summarised in Table 1.
In the third quarter of 1996, the top five countries/territories of loading for seaborne inward cargo were Singapore (which accounted for 17% in tonnage terms), Japan (12%), China (12%), Taiwan (11%) and the USA (8%). The top five countries/territories of discharge for seaborne outward cargo were China (25%), the USA (21%), Taiwan (6%), Japan (5%) and Singapore (4%).
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