Posted on August 3, 2026
The Port of Melbourne has released its operational results for June 2026, reporting total container throughput of 291,000 TEUs, up 7.3% year-on-year. The positive performance reflects broad-based growth across all three major cargo segments—imports, exports, and, most notably, transshipment containers.
Container Throughput Increased Across Most Segments
According to the Port of Melbourne’s latest statistics, container traffic in June showed several notable trends:
● Import containers: Excluding Bass Strait trade, throughput reached 117,000 TEUs, up 7.5% year-on-year.
● Export containers: Totaled 56,000 TEUs, representing a 4.2% increase.
● Transshipment containers: Recorded the strongest growth, surging 66.5% to 22,000 TEUs.
● Bass Strait trade: Reached 21,000 TEUs, an increase of 16.6%.
● Empty containers: Declined slightly by 2.9% to 75,000 TEUs.
The sharp increase in transshipment volumes further underscores the Port of Melbourne’s growing importance as a regional hub within the container shipping network.
Full-Year Container Throughput Reaches 3.52 Million TEUs
For the 2025/2026 financial year, total container throughput at the Port of Melbourne reached 3.52 million TEUs, an increase of 3.8% compared with the previous financial year.
Key highlights include:
● Import containers: 1.40 million TEUs, up 4.0%.
● Export containers: Remained stable at 690,000 TEUs.
● Empty containers: 987,000 TEUs, up 7.3%.
The results indicate that container operations at the port continue to maintain steady growth as regional trade gradually recovers.
Non-Container Cargo Maintains Modest Growth
In addition to containerized cargo, non-container cargo also posted positive results during June.
Total non-container cargo reached 2.03 million revenue tonnes, representing a 0.6% increase compared with the same month last year.
Performance by cargo category included:
● Motor vehicles: 816,000 revenue tonnes, up 9.2%.
● Liquid bulk cargo: 401,000 revenue tonnes, up 1.1%.
● Breakbulk cargo: 107,000 revenue tonnes, surging 45.0%.
● Other cargo: 324,000 revenue tonnes, up 8.2%.
● Dry bulk cargo: 387,000 revenue tonnes, down 23.3%, making it the only cargo segment to record a decline during the month.
For the 2025/2026 financial year, total non-container cargo handled by the Port of Melbourne reached 24.84 million revenue tonnes, up 1.1% from the 2024/2025 financial year.
