Transport Ministry: China leads world in container shipping throughput

THE latest 2011 shipping statistics from China's Transport Ministry shows national container throughput of 164 million TEU and an overall cargo volume of more than 10 billion tonnes which makes the country tops in global shipping, Xinhua reports.

China's waterway cargo traffic climbed 12 per cent to 4.2 billion tonnes, taking up 11.5 per cent of the country's total cargo transportation volume.

China's port throughput increased 12.4 per cent to 10.04 billion tonnes. Foreign trade cargo climbed 11.4 per cent to 2.79 billion tonnes. Container throughput increased 12 per cent to 164 million tonnes. On the list of the world's top 20 container ports, eight were from China.

Last year, China had 31,968 berths in operation, 334 more than in 2010, 1,762 berths of 10,000-tonne capacity or more, and 101 more of this grade than in the year before.

China's vessel fleet increased 0.5 per cent to 179,200 vessels, while capacity increased 17.9 per cent to 212.64 million dead weight tonnes. Ocean shipping fleet capacity rose to the fourth of the world with 115 million tonnes.