MACAO, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Macao's gross weight of containerized cargo by land grew 47.3 percent year-on-year to 4,604 tonnes in the first quarter of 2019, but the seaborne containerized cargo slightly decreased, the special administrative region's statistic service said on Saturday.

The latest report issued by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) showed that the gross weight of seaborne containerized cargo decreased 2.1 percent to 37,448 tonnes, while seaborne laden container throughput went down 4.8 percent year-on-year to 21,649 Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU), equivalent to 14,521 containers handled.

Gross weight of containerized cargo by land in March also rose remarkably by 43.3 percent year-on-year to 1,403 tonnes, of which cargo passing through the checkpoint of Cotai went up 45.3 percent to 1,340 tonnes.

Gross weight of seaborne containerized cargo in March dropped 9.1 percent year-on-year to 13,128 tonnes. Seaborne laden container throughput totaled 7,472 TEU, equivalent to 5,059 containers handled, down 4.9 percent and 4.5 percent respectively.

The Macao International Airport handled 3,579 tonnes of air cargo in March, a growth of 5.3 percent year-on-year. The gross weight of inward cargo (562 tonnes) and outward cargo (2,556 tonnes) rose 2.9 percent and 13.3 percent respectively.

In the first quarter, air cargo dropped 1.8 percent year-on-year to 8,647 tonnes.