Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals (HACTL) had a flat December in freight tonnage with the overall figures for imports and exports increasing by about half a percentage point.
However, North America showed strong growth with exports from China jumping 26 per cent and imports from the Americas at 14 per cent. For HACTL, the rest of China was second to North America. The rest of China's imports from Hong Kong were up 6.9 per cent, while the financial centre's imports grew 12 per cent. The rest of South East Asia has one star player in Taiwan, with import growth of five per cent and exports to China jumping 10 per cent. Yet much of the region is stagnant with only Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Malayasia and the Philippines achieving slow growth in exports to China of two to four per cent. Imports to those countries were much slower.Japan and Korea exported far more to China than they imported. Exports to the two countries from China strugged at one per cent, while imports through HACTL rose five per cent. Australia's exports to China were up about 2 per cent.Despite Africa, South America and the Middle East being reported as regions of real growth in 2013, HACTL saw very little increase in imports and exports from them. All three had moribund figures with virtually no growth. Even India saw little change, however China exported more there, with growth for that about three per cent. Imports from India grew at less than one per cent. In Europe, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK were exported to, but what freight there was into China saw HACTL import from Norway, Italy, and the UK.