In the first quarter of 2011, Hong Kong's total port cargo throughput recorded virtually no change over a year earlier at 62.7 million tons, the city's Census and Statistics Department announced Thursday.

Within this total, both inward and outward port cargo recorded virtually no change at 35.9 million tons and 26.8 million tons respectively, the department said Thursday, releasing statistics on vessels, port cargo and containers for the first quarter of 2011.

On a seasonally adjusted quarter-to-quarter comparison, total port cargo throughput decreased by 4 percent in the first quarter of 2011. Within this total, inward and outward port cargo decreased by 5 percent and 2 percent respectively.

The seasonally adjusted series enables more meaningful shorter- term comparison to be made for discerning possible variations in trends.

As for containers, the port of Hong Kong handled 5.5 million TEUs of containers in the first quarter of 2011, representing an increase of 1 percent over a year earlier.

On a seasonally adjusted quarter-to-quarter comparison, laden container throughput decreased by 2 percent in the first quarter this year.

The number of ocean vessel arrivals recorded virtually no change in the first quarter at 8,030 compared with the same period last year, with the total capacity increasing by 10 percent to 102. 2 million net registered tons.

Over the same period, the number of river vessel arrivals also recorded virtually no change at 43 170, with the total capacity increasing by 2 percent to 26 million net registered tons.