The total port cargo throughput fell to 54.9 million tons in the first quarter of 2007, down 2 percent on the same period last year, the Census and Statistics Department of Hong Kong announced on Thursday.

The inward port cargo fell 7 percent to 32.4 million tons and outward grew 6 percent to 22.5 million tons.

On a seasonally adjusted quarter-to-quarter comparison, total port cargo throughput fell 5 percent. Within this total, inward port cargo fell 9 percent and outward port cargo fell 1 percent.

Within port cargo, seaborne cargo grew 1 percent over a year earlier to 39.3 million tons, and river cargo fell 9 percent to 15.7 million tons. Within inward port cargo, imports fell 16 percent over a year earlier to 17.4 million tons, and inward transshipment grew 5 percent to 15 million tons.

For outward port cargo, exports (including domestic exports and re-exports) fell 11 percent to 7.7 million tons, while outward transshipment rose 18 percent to 14.9 million tons.

In the first quarter, the port of Hong Kong handled 5.4 million containers. Within this total, laden containers rose 1 percent to 4.5 million, while empty containers fell 5% to 900,000. Among laden containers, inward containers fell 2 percent to 2.2 million, while outward containers grew 5 percent to 2.3 million.