Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that total number of licensed motor vehicles as at the end of March 2018 dropped by 2.6% year-on-year to 238,970, of which light motorcycles (28,182) and light automobiles (106,632) decreased by 15.2% and 3.2% respectively, whereas heavy motorcycles (96,453) rose by 2.5%. In the first quarter of 2018, new registration of motor vehicles went up by 10.4% year-on-year to 4,155 on account of an increase of 43.1% in light automobiles (1,660). There were 3,484 cases of traffic accidents in the first quarter, down by 2.6% year-on-year; number of victims totalled 1,150 and 2 of them were killed.
In the first quarter of 2018, cross-border vehicular traffic grew by 2.1% year-on-year to 1,199,533; vehicular traffic through the Checkpoint of Cotai (29.1% of total) rose by 13.5%, while that through the Border Gate (70.0%) dropped by 2.0%. Passenger ferry movements between Macao and Mainland China and between Macao and Hong Kong went down by 5.4% year-on-year to 33,389 trips in the first quarter.
Commercial flight movements at the Macau International Airport increased by 14.9% year-on-year to 14,824 in the first quarter of 2018; flight movements to and from Mainland China, Thailand and Taiwan grew by 14.3%, 3.4% and 9.2% respectively. Helicopter flight movements between Macao and Mainland China and between Macao and Hong Kong rose by 1.0% year-on-year to 3,151 in the first quarter.
Gross weight of containerized cargo by land dropped by 12.1% year-on-year to 3,126 tonnes in the first quarter of 2018, of which cargo passing through the Checkpoint of Cotai (2,958 tonnes) accounted for 94.6%. Moreover, gross weight of seaborne containerized cargo fell by 11.5% year-on-year to 38,279 tonnes in the first quarter, with 51.0% (19,504 tonnes) passing through the Inner Harbour; seaborne container throughput amounted to 32,500 TEU, equivalent to 22,239 containers handled, up by 7.0% and 5.1% respectively.
In the first quarter of 2018, the Macau International Airport handled 8,801 tonnes of air cargo, up by 13.8% year-on-year, with inward cargo (1,681 tonnes) and outward cargo (5,545 tonnes) rising by 26.8% and 15.9% respectively; meanwhile, transit cargo (1,576 tonnes) dropped by 2.9%. Taiwan was the major origin and destination of inward and outward air cargo, constituting 56.7% and 47.8% of the respective total.
As at the end of March 2018, number of fixed-line telephone subscribers decreased by 4.8% year-on-year to 130,437. Number of mobile phone subscribers rose by 17.6% to 2,327,834, of which stored-value GSM card subscribers (1,576,078) accounted for 67.7%. Number of internet subscribers increased by 10.1% year-on-year to 407,676. In the first quarter of 2018, the cumulative duration of internet usage grew by 3.3% year-on-year to 309 million hours.