Chinese ports are expected to post a rise in cargo throughput this year though containers handled may decline due to a still unstable economic situation, an official at the Ministry of Transport said yesterday.

The throughput of dry bulk cargo at the domestic ports may rise 4 percent year on year to 6.48 billion tons this year, He Jianzhong, a ministry spokesman, said in Beijing yesterday.

The dry bulk cargo throughput reached 5.87 billion tons last year, up 11.5 percent from 2007.

But container throughput is set to drop 7 percent this year from a year ago to 120 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units), officials said.

The ministry disclosed on July 15 that domestic ports handled a total of 3.27 billion tons of cargo in the first six months this year, a rise of 2.6 percent year on year. Container throughput tumbled 11 percent from a year ago to 56 million TEUs.

But He said: "It's hard to predict the market in the next six months."

(Shanghai Daily July 24, 2009)