Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that new registration of motor vehicles increased by 41.4% year-on-year to 4,572 in the third quarter of 2017, with that of heavy motorcycles (2,823) rising by 50.8%. New registration of motor vehicles in the first three quarters of 2017 went up by 17.4% year-on-year to 11,828, attributable to an increase of 1,701 heavy motorcycles (7,120). As at the end of September 2017, total number of licensed motor vehicles dropped by 3.0% year-on-year to 241,441, of which heavy motorcycles (95,964) and light automobiles (107,679) decreased by 3.2% and 3.0% respectively. There were 3,879 cases of traffic accidents in the third quarter of 2017 and number of victims totalled 1,288, up by 8.5% and 20.4% respectively year-on-year. In the first three quarters of 2017, number of traffic accidents rose slightly by 0.8% year-on-year to 11,087 cases, resulting in 3,547 casualties and 6 of them were killed.
Cross-border vehicle traffic totalled 1,210,964 in the third quarter of 2017, down by 6.7% year-on-year. In the first three quarters of 2017, cross-border vehicle traffic decreased by 6.8% year-on-year to 3,585,103, due to an 11.8% drop in vehicle traffic through the Border Gate (72.6% of total). Passenger ferry movements between Macao and Mainland China and between Macao and Hong Kong went down by 5.4% year-on-year to 33,671 trips in the third quarter, and movements in the first three quarters edged down by 0.3% to 104,429 trips.
Commercial flight movements at the Macau International Airport totalled 13,956 in the third quarter of 2017, up by 2.8% year-on-year. In the first three quarters of 2017, commercial flight movements went down by 1.1% year-on-year to 40,337; flight movements to and from Mainland China and the Republic of Korea grew by 2.6% and 78.5% respectively, while movements to and from Thailand and Taiwan dropped by 28.5% and 11.4% respectively. Helicopter flight movements between Macao and Mainland China and between Macao and Hong Kong decreased by 12.5% year-on-year to 2,809 in the third quarter, while movements in the first three quarters rose by 11.0% to 8,900.
Gross weight of containerized cargo by land fell by 40.5% year-on-year to 3,232 tonnes in the third quarter of 2017. In the first three quarters of 2017, gross weight of containerized cargo by land dropped by 33.7% year-on-year to 11,681 tonnes, of which cargo passing through the Checkpoint of Cotai (11,016 tonnes) accounted for 94.3%.
Gross weight of seaborne containerized cargo decreased by 1.4% year-on-year to 38,633 tonnes in the third quarter of 2017. Seaborne container throughput dropped by 1.0% to 32,239 TEU, equivalent to 22,652 containers handled, up slightly by 0.2%. In the first three quarters of 2017, gross weight of seaborne containerized cargo fell by 8.9% year-on-year to 122,315 tonnes, of which 53.2% (65,058 tonnes) passed through the Inner Harbour. Seaborne container throughput in the first three quarters went down by 1.5% year-on-year to 94,360 TEU, equivalent to 65,879 containers handled, up marginally by 0.2%.
The Macau International Airport handled 9,172 tonnes of air cargo in the third quarter of 2017, up by 19.4% year-on-year. In the first three quarters of 2017, air cargo increased by 16.2% year-on-year to 26,503 tonnes, of which inward cargo (4,766 tonnes), outward cargo (16,170 tonnes) and transit cargo (5,568 tonnes) rose by 1.6%, 21.2% and 16.7% respectively. In the first three quarters, Taiwan was the major origin and destination of inward and outward air cargo, constituting 54.6% and 44.2% of the respective total; meanwhile, outward air cargo to Vietnam surged by 65.4% year-on-year.
As at the end of September 2017, number of fixed-line telephone subscribers decreased by 5.3% year-on-year to 133,527. Number of mobile phone subscribers rose by 9.3% to 2,071,997, of which stored-value GSM card subscribers (1,342,855) accounted for 64.8%. Number of internet subscribers increased by 8.7% year-on-year to 388,200. In the third quarter of 2017, the cumulative duration of internet usage reached 313 million hours, up by 8.7% year-on-year, and the duration of usage went up by 6.1% to 923 million hours in the first three quarters of 2017.