Revenues from shipments passing through Sihanoukville Autonomous Port rose 7 per cent year-on-year in 2011, according to port officials.

Total revenues last year reached US$30.5 million, up from $28.5 million in 2010, SAP data show.

The growing Cambodian economy forced domestic manufacturers to boost their production, thereby increasing cargo traffic, port General Director Lou Kim Chhun said yesterday.

“As normal, if our economy increases, the shipment of cargoes also hikes,” he said, adding that he expected the trend to continue in 2012.

Those shipments included exports of milled rice, clothes and wood, and imports of construction material, electronics and raw materials for garment manufacturing, according to Lou Kim Chhun.

Milled rice exports showed a significant jump year-on-year, soaring 199 per cent to about 133,000 tonnes, up from about 44,500 in 2010.

Total shipments through the port last year weighed 2.42 million tonnes, climbing 9 per cent from in 2010.

Meanwhile, shipments through Phnom Penh Autonomous Port increased 31 per cent year-on-year in 2011, according to official figures obtained by the Post.

Shipments soared 66 per cent year-on-year in December. The port processed a total of 81,631 twenty-foot-equivalent units throughout 2011, a jump from the 62,256 TEUs seen in 2010, according to PPAP data.

At the same time, TEUs for the month of December rose to 7,864 from 4,747 in the same period last year.

Phnom Penh Autonomous Port vice general director Eang Veng Sun said the numbers were in line with the Kingdom’s growing economy, as garment and rice exports were on the rise. “The port will be active as the country’s economy continues to grow in the future,” he said, echoing SAP general director Lou Kim Chhun’s sentiments.

The duty-free status enjoyed by Cambodia’s products in Europe, particularly its garments, as well as rice shipments to Europe, Russia and elsewhere in Asia, helped to generate the increase at PPAP last year, he said.