Voyage permit ships move less freight – BTRE

The Australian sea freight 2007-08 report, released today, showed ships using single voyage permits and continuous voyage permits moved an estimated 14.9mt of freight around the Australian coast, a 10.6% decrease on 2006-07, BTRE said.

The number of ships involved in international shipping entering Australia rose to 3,807, compared with 3,723 in 2006-07.

The Australian trading fleet decreased in both gross and deadweight tonnage as at July 2008 compared with the previous year.

The total number of ships in the fleet also decreased by two to 94.

In 2007-08, 908.9m tonnes (mt) of cargo moved across Australian wharves. This represented a 6.8% increase on 2006-07.

Some 77.7% of this cargo was exports, 9.2% was imports, 6.5% was domestic loaded cargo, and 6.6% was domestic unloaded cargo.

In 2007-08, 789.6mt of international cargo moved across Australian wharves. Compared with 2006-07, there was a 7.6% increase in exports and an 8.1% increase in imports by weight.

By value, there was a 7.1% increase in exports and a 13.4% increase in imports between 2006-07 and 2007-08.

Australian ports handled 119.3mt of coastal cargo during 2007-08, an increase of 2.4% on 2006-07.

This tonnage represented 13.1% of all cargo moved across Australian wharves.