Sihanoukville Autonomous Port is showing 16.3 percent growth in freight volume for the first four months of 2010 compared to last year, but expectations for growth in 2010 remain in the single digits. Despite the strong signs of recovery, the port is hoping to increase shipments to 1,938,000 tonnes for the 2010 calendar year, only a 3.4 percent increase on 2009. Port Deputy Director General Ma Sun Huot said the “wider range of choices” traders had now, as new ports became accessible, was making growth difficult. A total of 693,750 tonnes of goods were shipped in the first four months of this year, compared to 596,540 tonnes in the same period of last year. Ma Sun Huot said the increase for the first four months was driven by imports of oil and steel and exports of agricultural products such as rice and red corn.