This aerial photo taken on May 11, 2023 shows an automatic container terminal of Qinzhou Port and a railway container distribution center in Qinzhou City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Zhang Ailin)

The container throughput at Chinese ports rose 4.7 percent year on year in 2022, data from the Ministry of Transport shows.

A total of 296 million twenty-foot equivalent units of containers were handled at the country's ports last year, according to an annual report on the development of the transport industry released by the ministry.

Cargo throughput at China's ports was about 15.69 billion tonnes in the period, up 0.9 percent from the previous year, said the ministry.

Specifically, cargo throughput at the country's coastal ports went up 1.6 percent year on year to 10.13 billion tonnes, while goods handled at those inland ports edged down 0.3 percent to 5.55 billion tonnes.