PORT of Newcastle saw a decrease in its total monthly throughput in August compared with the same month last year.
Total trade through the port last month amounted to 13.9 million mass tonnes, down 8.4% from the 15.2 million tonnes recorded 12 months earlier.
The overall decrease can be attributed to a fall in commodity exports. In August last year, Newcastle exported 14.8 million mass tonnes of cargo, but last month, commodity exports reached 13.5 million tonnes, an 8.7% decrease.
Imports, on the other hand, were up 2.7% increasing from just over 366,000 tonnes in August last year to around 376,000 last month.
Fuels were the largest imported commodities in August, as they were a year earlier, though a year-on-year increase appears to have driven the total commodity import volumes up.
Around 170,000 tonnes of fuel passed through the port last month, up 56% on the 109,000 tonnes recorded in the same month last year.
Coal exports in August this year amounted to 13.1 million mass tonnes, a 9.1% decrease since the same month last year, when the port exported 14.4 million tonnes of coal.
