Container volume of mainland ports has returned to steady growth of 20 per cent from the peak of 40 per cent in 2004, said to be the result of Beijing's efforts to curb the trade surplus, Xinhua reported.

    Increase of box volume is subjected to import and export growth. Boosted by surging exports, ports in China experienced rapid growth in container throughput of more than 30 per cent from 2002 to 2004.

    But starting from 2005, the growth rate has fallen to 20 per cent annually due to the policy on cooling the economy, the report said.

    Container ports continue to maintain steady growth in 2007. Statistics of the Ministry of Communications show mainland ports handled 92.1 million TEU in the first 10 months of 2007, an increase of 22.3 per cent year on year.

    The top eight container ports including Shanghai, Shenzhen, Qingdao, Ningbo-Zhoushan, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Xiamen and Dalian altogether handled 73.6 million TEU, accounting for 80 per cent of the total.