Port cargo throughput for Hong Kong held up in the first quarter this year at a time when a global slowdown is weighing on exports. Throughput rose 8 per cent from a year earlier to 43.1 million tonnes in the first quarter this year. Of this total, inward port cargo also rose 8 per cent, to 26.8 million tonnes, while outward port cargo increased 9 per cent to 16.3 million tonnes. The Census and Statistics Department said yesterday that when compared with the fourth quarter last year on a seasonally adjusted basis, total port cargo throughput rose by 4 per cent.