Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that new registration of motor vehicles rose substantially by 78.6% year-on-year to 1,665 in March 2017, with that of heavy motorcycles (1,034) soaring by 88.0%. Owing to a notable decrease in January, new registration of motor vehicles in the first quarter of 2017 dropped by 5.8% year-on-year to 3,762, of which light automobiles fell by 451 (-28.0%). As at the end of March 2017, total number of licensed motor vehicles was 245,310, down by 1.4% year-on-year; number of motorcycles (127,327) and light automobiles (110,184) decreased by 1.7% and 1.6% respectively. There were 1,181 cases of traffic accidents in March and number of casualties totalled 366. In the first quarter of 2017, number of traffic accidents decreased by 7.6% year-on-year to 3,578 cases, resulting in 1,118 casualties and 3 of them were killed.
Cross-border vehicle traffic totalled 413,413 trips in March 2017, down by 4.5% year-on-year. In the first quarter of 2017, cross-border vehicle traffic decreased by 6.6% year-on-year to 1,175,351 trips; vehicle traffic through the Border Gate dropped by 12.2% while that through the Checkpoint of Cotai rose by 12.4%. Passenger ferry movements between Macao and Mainland China and between Macao and Hong Kong decreased by 0.4% year-on-year to 11,561 trips in March, and movements in the first quarter edged down by 0.1% to 34,538 trips.
Commercial flight movements at the Macao International Airport totalled 4,448 in March 2017, down by 1.5% year-on-year. In the first quarter of 2017, commercial flight movements decreased by 5.9% year-on-year to 12,907; flight movements to and from Mainland China, Thailand and Taiwan dropped by 1.2%, 27.1% and 15.9% respectively, while movements to and from the Republic of Korea surged by 48.2%. Helicopter flight movements between Macao and Mainland China and between Macao and Hong Kong soared by 50.8% year-on-year to 950 in March, and movements in the first quarter rose by 31.5% to 3,119.
Gross weight of seaborne containerized cargo decreased by 2.6% year-on-year to 16,827 tonnes in March 2017. Seaborne container throughput dropped by 2.6% year-on-year to 10,645 TEU, equivalent to 7,434 containers handled, up slightly by 0.3%. In the first quarter of 2017, gross weight of seaborne containerized cargo decreased by 9.0% year-on-year to 43,303 tonnes, of which 53.2% (23,053 tonnes) passed through Inner Harbour; seaborne container throughput (30,381 TEU) and containers handled (21,162) went down by 3.8% and 0.7% respectively.
Gross weight of containerized cargo by land decreased by 20.4% year-on-year to 1,523 tonnes in March. In the first quarter of 2017, gross weight of containerized cargo by land dropped by 47.5% year-on-year to 3,652 tonnes, of which cargo through the Checkpoint of Cotai (3,409 tonnes) accounted for 93.3%.
The Macao International Airport handled 3,115 tonnes of air cargo in March 2017, up by 9.8% year-on-year. In the first quarter of 2017, air cargo increased by 7.9% year-on-year to 7,732 tonnes, of which outward cargo (4,783 tonnes) and transit cargo (1,623 tonnes) rose by 14.7% and 6.3% respectively, while inward cargo (1,326 tonnes) dropped by 9.8%. In the first quarter of 2017, outward air cargo to Taiwan (40.0% of total) increased by 14.5% year-on-year whereas inward air cargo from Taiwan (53.1% of total) went down by 19.1%.
At the end of March 2017, number of fixed-line telephone subscribers decreased by 5.5% year-on-year to 137,078. Number of mobile phone subscribers rose by 5.1% to 1,979,328, of which stored-value GSM card subscribers (1,278,742) accounted for 64.6%. Number of internet subscribers increased by 7.2% year-on-year to 370,202. In the first quarter of 2017, the cumulative duration of internet usage reached 300 million hours, up by 4.1% year-on-year.