Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that licensed motor vehicles in Macao totalled 249,685 as at end-March 2023, up by 1.0% year-on-year; light automobiles (114,166) and heavy motorcycles (108,536) rose by 0.9% and 2.2% respectively. New registration of motor vehicles in March went up by 26.3% year-on-year to 1,295 (299 of them were electric), with that of heavy motorcycles rising by 31.3% to 742 (116 of them were electric). In the first quarter of 2023, new registration of motor vehicles edged down by 0.1% year-on-year to 2,996. Number of traffic accidents in March decreased by 0.9% year-on-year to 1,055, with 1 person killed and 357 persons injured. In the first quarter of 2023, there were 3,113 traffic accidents, which resulted in 3 deaths and 1,016 injuries.
Cross-border vehicular traffic in March hiked by 71.2% year-on-year to 573,022 trips, of which light automobile trips (533,227) surged by 77.2%. Meanwhile, gross weight of containerized cargo by land in March dropped by 18.8% year-on-year to 3,451 tonnes; cargo passing through the Checkpoint of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (3,090 tonnes) took up 89.5% of the total. In the first quarter of 2023, cross-border vehicular traffic (1,496,620 trips) leapt by 64.1% year-on-year, while gross weight of containerized cargo by land (7,217 tonnes) slid by 17.5%.
Gross weight of port containerized cargo went up by 24.2% year-on-year to 18,214 tonnes in March; cargo being handled at the Ká-Hó Harbour (12,109 tonnes) expanded by 159.1% whereas thatbeing shippedthrough the Inner Harbour (6,105 tonnes) fell by 38.9%. In the first quarter of 2023, gross weight of port containerized cargo rose by 8.3% year-on-year to 42,513 tonnes.
With an increase in the demand for air passenger transport services, arriving and departing commercial flights soared by 161.0% year-on-year to 2,519 trips in March. Meanwhile, gross weight of air cargo fell by 23.8% year-on-year to 4,081 tonnes, of which inward cargo (466 tonnes) and outward cargo (3,509 tonnes) decreased by 4.0% and 27.5% respectively. In the first quarter of 2023, number of arriving and departing commercial flights grew by 65.1% year-on-year to 6,182 trips, while gross weight of air cargo (9,446 tonnes) diminished by 25.1%.
As at the end of March, there were 91,059 fixed-line telephone subscribers, down by 7.2% year-on-year. Number of mobile phone subscribers decreased by 1.9% year-on-year to 1,242,719; prepaid SIM card subscribers (306,907) dropped by 14.5% whereas postpaid subscribers (935,812) rose by 3.1%. Internet subscribers totalled 706,954 as at end-March, an increase of 3.6% year-on-year. The duration of internet usage in March grew by 4.6% year-on-year to 149 million hours, whereas the total duration of internet usage in the first quarter of 2023 went up by 4.5% to 433 million hours.