Statistics from the Yangtze River Administration show that throughput of general cargo passing the Three Gorges shiplocks had reached 71.03m tons in the first 11 months of 2010, up by 30 per cent year-on-year. Throughput of containers rose by 12 per cent to 396,000 TEU. Altogether, 53,192 vessels passed the shiplocks, up by 15 per cent.

The shiplocks were designed to handle an average daily volume of 230 standardised vessels in both directions with an annual capacity of up to 50m tons. However capacity was almost reached as early as 2007. Locks officials believe that better management and the ongoing vessel standardisation programme will help double capacity to 100m tons. However, given the current rate of growth in cargo volumes, it will not be long before this higher capacity level is reached.