Cambodia's sea port reports 19% rise in container throughput

The Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, Cambodia's largest shipping facility, has seen a 19 percent rise in container volume in the first four months of 2015, the port's data showed Thursday.

The state-owned sea port handled 117,676 twenty-foot-equivalent units, or standard-sized containers (TEUs) during the January- April period this year, up 19 percent from 98,635 TEUs over the same period last year, the data said.

Containerized cargo tonnage increased 9 percent to 1.29 million tons from 1.18 million tons, it added.

The port also saw a 7 percent increase in the import of petroleum from 410,792 tons in the first four months last year to 440,070 tons over the same period this year.

So Sieng, director of the port's planning and statistics department, said the growth reflected the country's better economic situation. "We see that there are increases in the exports of garment and footwear products, milled rice and cassava chips,"he said.

The Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, situated in southwest Cambodia's Preah Sihanouk province, handles more than 60 percent of the country's cargo traffic.