Cargo throughput of the major ports along the Yangtze trunkline reached 85m tons in April 2009, up 1.1 per cent over the same period last year. Out of this total, 11m tons were foreign trade related, up nearly 3 per cent. Container throughput declined by 7.4 per cent to 550,000 teu.

Over the first four months, cargo throughput decreased by 2.8 per cent to 316m tons year-on-year. Foreign trade related cargo was up 3.7 per cent to 42.07 tons while container throughput fell by 9.1 per cent to 1.92m teu.