China’s main ports handled 768.9m tonnes of freight in August, up 11.2 per cent year-on-year, according to Ministry of Transport statistics. Out of this total, 520m tonnes were handled by coastal ports and 248.8m tonnes by inland river ports.

Their handling capacity of standard containers stood at 14.46m TEU, an increase of 9.7 per cent, of which 12.96m TEU was in the major coastal ports.

China’s largest port, Shanghai, moved 8.5 per cent more containers in September over the same period last year, but throughput dipped on the previous month. The port registered 2.76m TEU of container traffic last month, up from 2.54m TEU in September 2010, according to Shanghai International Port (Group).

Container volumes, however, declined 1.8 per cent compared with the 2.81m TEU recorded in August.