China's road freight volume declined in the first five months of 2022 which could be largely attributed to the on-and-off lockdowns in some major Chinese cities restricting cargo flows via trucking.

State media reported that road freight volume fell 4.6% year on year in the January to May period, citing data from the Ministry of Transport.

Xinhua noted that about 14.37 billion tonnes of road cargo were transported during this period.

In May alone, China's road freight volume neared 3.26 billion tonnes.

"Northeast China's Jilin Province saw a sharp decline of 34% in the period. Bucking the trend, northwest China's Qinghai Province saw road freight volume up 23.4 percent from a year earlier," the report added.