DOMESTIC transport firm So Nguon Group reported a 40 percent decline in freight volumes over the first nine months of the year and warned Tuesday that further declines were likely as purchase orders continue to fall in the garment sector.

Company President So Nguon said the company would launch a new route from October 15, carrying goods between Thailand and Vietnam via the international border crossings at Poipet on the Thai border and Bavet at the Vietnam border in an attempt to boost revenues.

The company sent just 10,800 shipments by truck during the first nine months of 2009, down from 18,000 a year earlier, according to documents seen by the Post. The shipments were worth US$6.48 million to the company, also down 40 percent from $10.8 million in the first nine months of 2008.

So Nguon Group gets the bulk of its income from transporting garments from factories in Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville Autonomous Port or to Vietnam where they are loaded onto cargo ships for destinations further afield, he said.

“We don’t expect that our services will be used a lot like last year because the world economic crisis, which still continues to be felt, has reduced the amount of goods transported in and out of Cambodia,” he said.

Cambodia Economic Association President Chan Sophal said he expected a slow recovery in the transportation sector before too long in line with an uptick in the Cambodian economy.

This month international organisations including the Asian Development Bank have predicted GDP would contract between 1.5 percent and 2.75 percent in 2009.