National Reserve Bank of Tonga

Registrations slow, the usual January trend

Container Registrations  January 2017

Container registrations decreased over the month after three consecutive months of constant increase, a similar trend to previous years. The total number of container registrations decreased by 612 (48.6%) to 647 containers. This reflected the end of the Christmas and the festive season in December. Both business and private containers fell by 222 (36.8%) and 390 (59.5%) registrations respectively. Half of these container shipments were imported from New Zealand, followed by Indonesia and Japan.

In addition, the decline in container registrations during the month coincided with the $3.9 million (13.9%) decrease in import payments (excluding oil). It also reflected less cargo ship arriving in January, a total of 9 ships compared to 13 in December 2016.

Over the year to January 2017, total container registrations continued to rise by 1,049 registrations (11.3%), driven mostly by a 702 (17.7%) rise in private containers indicating a rise in the informal distribution sector. Business containers also rose over the year by 347 registrations (6.5%). The large number of events and celebrations held during the year supported this annual growth. In addition, 32 extra cargo ships arrived during the year to January 2017 compared to the previous year. This coincided with a $46.5 million (18.0%) rise in import payments (excluding oil) as a result of higher import payments for construction materials, vehicles and wholesale & retail.

The Reserve Bank expects imports and consequently container registrations to generally increase for the remainder of 2016/17. The Reserve Bank’s liaisons with the construction and transport sectors had indicated growing demand in these sectors which will also drive imports in the near future. On-going constructions projects and new private residential constructions are anticipated to contribute to the rise. Spill over effects on the trade, tourism, construction sectors and other sectors in the economy are also anticipated.

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