China's ports saw a slight expansion of cargo throughput in the first four months of the year despite COVID-19 disruptions.

State media reported that cargo throughput at the country's ports neared 4.91 billion tonnes in the period, edging up 0.2% year on year, citing data from the Ministry of Transport.

During the January-April period, the container handling volume at China's ports rose 1.7% from a year ago to 91.04 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).

Xinhua said in April alone, that China's ports handled more than 1.27 billion tonnes of cargo, while container throughput stood at 23.66 million TEUs.

Road freight down in January-April

Meanwhile, Xinhua also reported that China's road freight volume declined in the first four months.

China's road freight volume fell 3.9% year on year in the first four months of the year.

It said more than 11.1 billion tonnes of road cargo were transported during this period and in April alone, China's road freight volume came in at around 2.96 billion tonnes.