A DROP in imports resulted in August container throughput at the Port of Adelaide being down on the previous month, according to the latest trade statistics available from Flinders Ports.
The port’s throughput of full containers for August 2020 was 27,773 TEU, down from July’s figures of 30,452 TEU, a drop of 9%. Throughput was up however on August 2019 by 8%, or 1952 TEU.
Both imports and exports were down compared with July, with imports dropping by 17% (to 12,898 TEU), while exports fell just short of July’s amount by only 100 TEU (to 14,875 TEU).
Looking at the empties trade last month, 5619 TEU of empty containers crossed the Adelaide wharf, of which 3877 TEU were imported, and 1742 TEU were exported. Malaysia was the destination for the majority of exported empties, accounting for 67% of all exported empties (1161 TEU). Singapore was a distant second (124 TEU), followed by New Zealand (116 TEU).
Of all the port’s imported empties, 89% came from Australian ports (3465 TEU).
Looking at break-bulk, Flinders Ports reported 3495 cars imported into Adelaide over the month, a 218% increase from July. The total break-bulk tonnage throughput (including cars, general cargo, scrap metal, iron and steel) came to 24,874 tonnes, an increase of 1008 tonnes from July.
Turning to bulk commodities, the largest imports were limestone (177,600 tonnes), closely followed by petroleum and gas (168,883 tonnes), and cement/clinker (37,187 tonnes).
Grain was the leading exported bulk commodity (80,795 tonnes). Following were iron ore (77,264 tonnes) and cement/clinker (70,260 tonnes).
There were 25 cellular container vessel calls over the month at Adelaide, down four from July and less than the year-to-date average of 27.
