MONTH-to-month trade was down at Port Kembla in January largely due to a drop in break bulk revenue tonnage, according to the latest trade statistics from NSW Ports.
In January, non-containerised trade through the port was 2.254m revenue tonnes, down on December 2020’s figures (2.447m revenue tonnes), but up 32% on January 2020. Of the deficit of 193,713 revenue tonnes month-to-month, the break bulk trade contributed 122,235 revenue tonnes and RoRo 60,200 revenue tonnes.
Total imports for January (1.094m revenue tonnes) were down 8% from June and less than 1% up on January 2020. Dry bulk accounted for 58% of all imports (637,912 revenue tonnes), followed by RoRo (396,613 revenue tonnes or 23,631 units) at 36%. Break bulk and bulk liquid made up the remainder (33,326 and 26,285 revenue tonnes respectively).
Total exports for the month (1.159m revenue tonnes) were down 8% on December 2020 but almost double that of January 2020’s export numbers. Making up 93% of all exports was dry bulk with 1.077m revenue tonnes, down from December 2020’s 1.141m revenue tonnes. However, it was a 165% increase on January 2020 (407,072 revenue tonnes). Break bulk exports (46,481 revenue tonnes) were down on both the previous month (48%) and the corresponding period last year (73%). RoRo exports (28,611 revenue tonnes) increased from December 2020 (12%) but were down 10% on January 2020.
