Trade performance

More detail for 2017-18
Total trade

Container trade

Non-container trade

Motor vehicles

Liquid bulk

Dry bulk

Total trade

Total trade through the Port of Melbourne increased by 8.5% over the previous financial year to 95.0 million revenue tonnes. Total imports increased 9.7% to 54.8 million revenue tones and total exports increased by 6.9% to 40.2 million revenue tonnes.

Overseas imports increased 9.9% to 44.0 million revenue tonnes and overseas exports increased by 6.5% to 30.0 million revenue tonnes.

Coastal imports increased by 9.3% to 10.8 million revenue tonnes while coastal exports gained 8.0% to 10.2 million revenue tonnes.

Container trade

Total container throughput recorded its fastest growth rate since 2004-05, increasing by 8.6% to 2.93 million TEU. Full container imports increased 8.5% and full container exports gained 7.6%. Empty container movements increased by 10.5% to 611,000 TEU.

New motor vehicles

New motor vehicle trade declined 2.1% in 2017-18 to 4.9 million tonnes, which equated to 355,503 units. Imports increased 9.3% while exports decreased 49.3% following the closure of Toyota’s Altona manufacturing plant in October 2017.

Liquid bulk

Liquid bulk trade was almost static in 2017-18, decreasing just 0.5% to 6.3 million revenue tonnes (5.1 million mass tonnes).

Dry bulk

Dry bulk trade increased 7.8% to 5.0 million revenue tonnes (4.7 million mass tonnes). Imports increased 12.5% to 3.7 million revenue tonnes due to higher volumes of cement, sugar and crude fertilizers & minerals (slag and fly ash), while exports declined 4.1% to 1.3 million tonnes.