Customs in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region handled 37.1m tonnes of imports and exports in the first six months of this year, 23.7 per cent more than in the same period of 2010, Xinhua reported.

The number of containers handled by waterway checkpoints grew 50 per cent to 13,900 TEU, with throughput at the ports of Guigang and Qinzhou rising by some 270 per cent.

Further north, some 317m tonnes of cargo were transported on roads in northern China’s Shanxi province in the first half of 2011, a rise of 6.7 per cent year-on-year. In terms of payload distance, the increase was 6.3 per cent to 51.2bn tonnes per km.