Tema, Aug 11, GNA - Ghana, in the first quarter of this year, recorded a total of 3,370,757 metric tons of maritime trade.

The total maritime trade consisted of 2,413,711 metric tons of import trade, and 957,046 metric tons of export trade through the Tema and Takoradi Ports.

The statistics are contained in a copy of the April-June 2010 edition of the Shipping Review Journal of the Ghana Shippers' Authority made available to the Ghana News Agency in Tema.

It stated that the figure recorded for the import maritime trade for the first quarter of this year, showed an 18 percent increase over the 2,041,944 recorded for the same period in 2009.

Total export maritime trade for the period, also recorded, a 17 percent increase over 816,102 data for the first quarter of last year.

According to the journal, import cargoes were loaded and discharged at various ports of the world, categorized as the United Kingdom, North America, North Continent, Mediterranean Europe, Far East, and Africa among others.

It indicated that the highest import tonnage of 628,471metric tons representing 26 percent of the total maritime import trade came into Ghana from the Far East.

The second highest tonnage of 607,078 metric tons representing 25 percent of total import maritime trade were from the North Continent, while 314,539 metric tons representing 13 percent of the total, came in from the Mediterranean Europe.

Two percent of the import tonnage came from the United Kingdom which posted 41,953 metric tons of the imports.

The Authority disclosed in the Journal that a total of 80 shipping lines participated in the carriage of the over three million metric tons maritime cargo.

Out of the 80 shipping lines, 51 handled the over 1.5 million metric tons of Liner Cargo, 14 participated in the Dry Bulk Trade, while the remaining 14 also handled the Liquid Bulk Trade.