Tokyo Container Trade Flat in December

The number of foreign trade containers handled by the Port of Tokyo was completely unchanged in December. Total volume at Japan's largest container port was 328,309 TEUs after falling for the first time in three months in November.

Of those containers, 234,435 TEUs were loaded, down 10.8 percent, and 93,874 TEUs were empty, up 43.3 percent, according to a preliminary report released by the Tokyo metropolitan government.

Of the loaded containers, 69,138 TEUs were exported, down 29.2 percent, and 165,297 TEUs were imported, up 0.1 percent.

Of the empty containers, 92,376 TEUs were exported, up 50.7 percent, and 1,498 TEUs were imported, down 64.4 percent.

For the full year of 2008, Tokyo handled approximately 3.73 million TEUs, up a marginal 0.2 percent from the previous year. Exports were up 0.5 percent at about 1.73 million TEUs, while imports were up 0.1 percent at about 2 million TEUs.

In trade with the U.S. West Coast and Mexico, Tokyo handled 25,103 TEUs of loaded containers in December, down 3.4 percent from a year earlier, and 4,010 TEUs of empty containers, up 15 percent.

In trade with the U.S. East Coast and the Caribbean region, Tokyo handled 5,783 TEUs of loaded containers in December, down 43.8 percent, and 1,302 TEUs of empty containers, down 38.3 percent.

Meanwhile, the Port of Kobe in western Japan handled a total of about 2.04 million TEUs of containers, including both loaded and empty ones, in foreign trade in 2008, up 1.1 percent from the previous year.

Exports through Kobe were up 1.5 percent at about 1.07 million TEUs, while imports were up 0.6 percent at about 970,000 TEUs, according to a preliminary report from the Kobe municipal government. Figures for the month of December alone were not given.

The regional breakdown of TEUs was not given. But the report shows that Kobe exported about 2.67 million tons of cargo, including both containerized and uncontainerized cargo, to the United States in 2008, down 7.4 percent, and imported about 5.09 million tons of cargo from the United States, up 2 percent.

Contact Hisane Masaki at yiu45535@nifty.com .