PORT Botany saw a quieter month than usual in June with container throughput decreasing from the previous month as well as the same period last year.

Total container trade through Port Botany over June came to 202,293 TEU – a decrease of 5% on the May (213,771 TEU), and a drop of 7% on June 2018’s total container throughput (217,615 TEU).

The month’s volumes of full imports were down by 9% on the previous year to 100,324 TEU and, according to NSW Ports, the largest decreases were experienced by miscellaneous manufactured articles (down by 25.9%) , non-metallic minerals (down by 16.7%) as well as iron and steel (down by 15.3%).

Export full volumes were also down on last year’s figures, dropping 9.6% to 42,661 TEU. Commodities with the largest decreases were commodities, miscellaneous manufactured articles (27.7%) and wood & timber (10.2%). Paper and paper products were also down (4.9%).

Export empties were at their lowest since May 2018, with 58,506 TEU leaving the port. This was down 15.5% on May and 15.2% on the FYTD monthly average of 68,693 TEU. Empty imports for June came to a total of 802 TEU.

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There were 99 container vessel visits during the month of June (eight more than June 2018), with the largest numbers of vessels being in the 4000-5000 TEU and 5000-6000 TEU ranges (30 visits and 27 visits, respectively).

At 538,604 revenue tonnes, June’s non-containerised trade through Port Botany was up 24% on the previous month, and up 21% on June 2018.