国内英语新闻:Cargo throughput rises but passenger numbers drop for China's large ports

BEIJING, May 19 (Xinhua) -- Major indices of China's large ports mostly pointed to better performance in April with increasing cargo throughput and exports volume, the Ministry of Transport said Wednesday.

According to latest figures posted on the ministry's website, China's large sea ports and river ports saw rapid throughput growth in cargo, exported goods volume and containers from January to April.

Passenger throughput via large ports, however, fell 18.5 percent from a year earlier to 295 million in the first four months of 2010, the ministry said.

Large ports are classified in China as sea ports with an annual cargo throughput above 15 million tonnes and river ports with an annual cargo throughput above 10 million tonnes.

From January to April, cargo throughput in those large ports jumped 20.2 percent year on year to about 2.48 billion tonnes, the ministry said.

About 206.5 million tonnes of goods were exported via the large ports during the January-April period, up 27.2 percent from a year ago.

Container throughput rose 22.4 percent year on year to 436.81 million TEUs in the first four months, according to the ministry.