Cargo shipment into ports in Phnom Penh and Preah Sihanouk province soared in the first four months of 2013, officials said.
At the Phnom Penh Autonomous Port—which since January has been moving the majority of goods through a new port in Kandal province—traffic was up by a massive 46 percent to 35,980 containers in the first four months of the year, according to the port’s deputy director-general, Eng Veng Sun.
A large part of the goods were construction materials being imported from China, Mr. Veng Sun said.
The city is presently experiencing a rise in construction activity, with the value of approved construction projects rising by 72 percent last year.
Khem Sitha, director of planning and finance at the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, said that in the year up to the end of April, goods equivalent to 87,467 6-meter cargo containers had transited through the port.
The figure represents a 12.5 percent increase on the 77,732 containers recorded in the same period in 2012, he said.
“We are exporting a lot of rice and cassava this year. Most of the cassava is exported to China,” Mr. Sitha said, adding that imports were mostly machinery, coal and oil.
State-owned rice exporter Green Trade has said that during the same period, milled rice exports rose by 43 percent, with most of the rice headed for Europe.
On Friday, a Cabinet session at the Council of Ministers approved a draft national policy on Cambodia’s ports, according to a statement. The policy focuses on developing more ports throughout the country.
