Statistics from the Yangtze River Administration under the Ministry of Transport show that a total of 7.27m tons of cargo passed the Three Gorges Dam shiplocks in June, the highest monthly volume since operations began in June 2003.

Traffic levels have been increasing at an average annual rate of 12.7 per cent over the past seven years. The designed 50m tons annual capacity of the shiplocks was breached in 2007. By the end of 2009, the cargo passing the locks reached a record volume of nearly 75m tons, up 8.45 per cent year-on-year.

Shiplocks officials claim that better management practices and the ongoing vessel standardisation programme have already doubled capacity to 100m tons. However, given the current rate of growth in cargo volumes, it will not be long before even this higher capacity level is reached.