Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited (Hactl) has released its throughput figures for May showing an 18.6 per cent decline in throughput year-on-year to 177,980 tonnes which represents a modest improvement over April’s 22.5 per cent year-on-year decline to 174,809 tonnes. Cumulative tonnage for the first five months of the year was 815,803 tonnes, down 23 per cent compared with the same period last year.

Import volume for May registered a 16.4 per cent decline on a year-on-year basis to 49,597 tonnes. Aggregate import volume for the first five months was 219,345 tonnes, down 21.8 per cent. The company said that the market outlook for western countries continues to be gloomy with the import volume from Europe and the US down 19.7 per cent and 16.5 per cent respectively.

Export volume for May and for the first five months were 90,637 tonnes and 417,387 tonnes respectively, down 23.3 per cent and 27.5 per cent year-on-year. Despite the sharp decline of over 30 per cent of export tonnage throughput to Europe, export cargoes to Middle East and Africa registered a 21 per cent and 21.5 per cent year-on-year growth respectively.

The transhipment volume was 37,746 tonnes in May, recording an 8.3 per cent decline compared with last year. Cumulative transshipment tonnage for the first five months was 179,071 tonnes, down11.6 per cent year-on-year.