The Port of Ningbo Zhoushan in east China's Zhejiang Province, saw its cargo throughput exceeding 1 billion tonnes in the first nine months of 2023, up 5.85 percent year on year, according to the provincial port and shipping administration.

As China's busiest port, it saw steady cargo throughput growth in the first three quarters of this year. Compared with the same period in 2022, the port's container throughput edged up 3.56 percent to 27.26 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).

The port has prioritized its shipping route layout this year, catering to market demand. It currently operates a total of 301 container routes, 249 of which are international routes, establishing connectivity with over 200 countries and regions.

At 35 kilometers, the Chuanshan Port Expressway is a key transportation artery of the Ningbo Zhoushan Port, with its flow of container trucks ranking first in Zhejiang.

The main driver of traffic growth are trucks to and from the Ningbo Zhoushan Port, according to a supervisor of expressway operations. Over 20,000 container trucks run on the Chuanshan Port Expressway per day, an increase of more than 10 percent over the same period last year.

Moreover, about 45 percent of the iron ore and more than 90 percent of the oil products transferred in the Yangtze River Economic Belt are handled by Ningbo Zhoushan Port. In the first three quarters, the amount of iron ore handled in the port exceeded 100 million tonnes.

According to the General Administration of Customs, exports of electric vehicles, photovoltaic cells and lithium batteries have maintained double-digit growth for 14 consecutive quarters.

The increase in the number and quality of imported and exported goods in the busy Ningbo Zhoushan Port signals positive changes in China's foreign trade, demonstrating the resilience and vitality of the Chinese economy.