Port of Luzhou Jan-Oct box volume soars 105pc

The river port of Luzhou, mainland China's Sichuan province, saw container throughput surge 105 per cent year on year to 32,159 TEU during the period from January to October, Xinhua News Agency reported.The port's total cargo volume in this period also increased 40 per cent to 8.24 million tons. Luzhou's box volume is expected to exceed 35,000 TEU by the end of this year, far surpassing the Luzhou container terminal's capacity of 25,000 TEU, said Li Jiyu , Vice Mayor of Luzhou. With a shortage in rail capacity and high road transportation costs, enterprises in Sichuan and Chongqing are turning to water transport, which is cheaper and uses less energy as well as having a larger capacity. According to an official in the Chongqing Port Administration, cargo transported on water accounted for 50 per cent of the city's total cargo movements in 2005. He predicted a 60 per cent increase by the end of this year. Another Sichuan port city of Yibin has also been experiencing growth in cargo volume, which will surpass 4 million tons by the end of the year from 2005's 3.8 million tons.