SIHANOUKVILLE Autonomous Port could exceed its total freight target for 2010 after six-monthly statistics revealed better-than-expected growth, according to a port official.

Ma Sunhuot, the port’s deputy director general, said the latest results mean it might surpass a target set at the beginning of 2010 – to ship 1,938,000 tonnes of goods in and out of the port this year, a 3.4 percent increase on last year’s total.

“Freight shipment in the region is increasing beyond what we have expected,” he said.

Freight shipment through Sihanoukville increased 13.6 percent during the first half of 2010, compared to the same period last year.

A total of 1.05 million tonnes was shipped between January and June this year, up from 921,330 tonnes shipped in the first six months of 2009.

Month-on-month figures indicated an 18.38 percent increase from May to June.

Ma Sunhuot said the increase during this year’s first half was the result of rising imports of oil and exports of acacia wood – a raw material for producing paper.

Sok Chheang, executive director of the Cambodia Trucking Association, said that his umbrella organisation had mainly transported raw materials for the garment sector, clothes and agricultural products.