Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited (Hactl) continued to see year-on-year declines in March cargo volumes, but said the declines appear to have levelled off.

come as “minor relief” Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited (Hactl) announced that its tonnage throughput for March and the first quarter both went down more than 20 per cent, but the figures provided “minor relief ” as they are a further indicator that the sharp declines have levelled off .

“The March figures came as a minor relief, as compared to the sharp tonnage declines registered in the previous months,” said Hactl’s general manager of Marketing and Customer Service, Lilian Chan. “But the market outlook remains grim for the rest of 2009 as the global trade market will need more time to recover,” she cautioned.

Hong Kong’s main air cargo handler saw a throughput of 186,636 tonnes in March, representing a decline of 21.1 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y), while cumulative tonnage for the first quarter was down 24.7 per cent at 463,014 tonnes.

Export volume in March was 96,529 tonnes, down 26.9 per cent compared with last year while cumulative export tonnage for the first quarter was 236,766 tonnes, representing a drop of 28.4 per cent y-o-y.

Exports to the Chinese mainland showed a considerable drop of 38.4 per cent in the first quarter, while the US and Europe recorded a decline of 29 per cent and 28.9 per cent respectively. Imports from the mainland, US and Europe declined 24.7 per cent, 21.2 per cent and 24.8 per cent in the first quarter respectively.

Transshipment volumes for March recorded a comparatively mild decrease of 6.7 per cent year-on-year to 42,366 tonnes while total transshipment volumes for the first quarter were 103,289 tonnes, down 14.2 per cent year-on-year.