Official data showed that cargo throughput at China’s ports recorded a growth of 6.7 per cent to about 5.5 billion during the first five months of this year, when compared to the same period from the year earlier, according to Xinhua.
Earlier, this data was accumulated by taking only the major ports into consideration. But the Ministry of Transport now takes all the ports in China into consideration.
According to the Ministry of Transport’s website, cargo throughput was recorded at 1.14 billion tonnes in the month of April.
The Ministry of Transport in a report said that foreign trade cargo throughput was up by 3.2 per cent, which amounts to 1.04 billion tonnes, in the first three months. Domestic trade, on the other hand, saw a higher growth of 8.5 per cent.
The growing numbers can be contributed to China’s growing waterway freight volume, which saw a 7.8 per cent year-on-year rise in the first five months of the year.
In the year 2018, at the Ningbo Zhoushan port in East China’s Zhejiang province annual cargo throughput surpassed 1 billion tonnes. No other port in the world has recorded such figures earlier.
According to a report released by Shanghai International Shipping Institute, throughput at China’s inland river ports also registered a 15.4 percent growth.
Over the years, China has improved the deep-water channel of the Yangtze River to over 12.5 meters deep. Other ports such as Zhenjiang, Nantong, Wuxi all reported a growth rate of more than 10 percent, the report said.
According to JOC.com, the Chinese government is looking to revamp the three gateway ports in southern mainland China and Hong Kong. This will only boost China’s ports’ total cargo throughput.