PORT Botany has reported a dip in trade figures for August in the latest NSW Ports trade report.

Container trade figures showed a slight decline across total imports and exports, dropping to 220,850 TEU last month from 229,118 TEU in August 2020, down 3.61%.

There was a notable spike in empty container imports, however, with 2028 TEU in August up from 292 TEU in the same month last year.

The top imported containerised commodity last month was miscellaneous manufactured articles at 16,408 TEU, although this number had decreased by nearly 18% since August 2020.

Though not amongst the most substantial imports, transport equipment displayed the highest reported increase, with 3551 TEU in FY22 compared with 2713 TEU last year, up almost 31%.

Of Port Botany’s top ten containerised commodities, textiles and textile articles showed the most significant decrease. With 4824 TEU imported in August 2021 compared with 6269 TEU in 2020, numbers were down by around 23%.

The top containerised export was vegetable products which also saw the greatest increase, up 168.41%, from 2441 TEU in August 2020 to 6552 TEU last month.

Plastic and rubber, while one of the top ten exports, dropped from 2785 to 2162, a 22.37% decrease.

Turning to non-containerised trade at Botany, total imports and exports also saw a decline, dropping from 473,536 tonnes in August last year to 353,854 tonnes past August, down 25.27%.

There was a 312.84% rise in total exports, at 53,149 tonnes in August 2021 compared with 12,874 tonnes in the same month last year.

The number was largely driven by the 517.64% increase in bulk liquid exports, with 45,088 tonnes up from 7300 tonnes last year.

Total non-containerised imports for Port Botany dropped from 460,662 tonnes to 300,705 tonnes, a 34.72% decrease.

In Port Kembla, total ro-ro throughput experienced a 19.16% increase, with 31,958 units in August 2021 compared with 26,819 units last year.

Total non-containerised throughputs for Port Kembla increased slightly, from 1.91 million tonnes last August to 1.975 million tonnes this year, up 3.29%.