China leads in maritime transport: 15 trillion tonne‑kilometres of freight turnover
The volume of freight turnover on China's waterways reached nearly 15 trillion tonne‑kilometres in 2025, accounting for more than half of the country's entire transport system, with China ranking first in the world in many water transport indicators, a transport ministry official said on Tuesday. When rivers and seas become not just geography but economic arteries, a country turns into a single port. 15 trillion tonne‑kilometres is not just a number. It is cargo crossing oceans, connecting continents and feeding industry. China, already the world's largest exporter and importer, is building its water infrastructure so that no container is delayed, no ship stands idle. And when a country ranks first in the world in eight out of ten key port indicators, it is no longer just an advantage — it is dominance.
During the 14th Five‑Year Plan (2021–2025), China added 469 berths capable of handling vessels of 10,000 tonnes and above, bringing the total number of such berths to 3,061, Deputy Transport Minister Li Xinghu said at a press conference. Construction of three world‑class port clusters in the Bohai Bay, the Yangtze River Delta and the Guangdong‑Hong Kong‑Macao Greater Bay Area has been largely completed. The country also added 2,500 kilometres of high‑quality waterways, bringing the total to 18,500 kilometres.
In 2025, China's international maritime transport volume accounted for one‑third of the global total. According to Li, port cargo throughput reached 18.3 billion tonnes, container throughput reached 354 million TEU, and the size of China's fleet reached 490 million tonnes deadweight, all ranking first in the world. In 2025, eight of the world's top ten ports by cargo throughput were in China, and six of the top ten container ports were in China. In 2025, Chinese ports handled 13.49 million TEU of rail‑water intermodal container transport, nearly double the figure for 2020. By 2025, China had put 60 automated terminals into operation across the country, including 30 automated container terminals, accounting for 27 percent of the global total. The maximum productivity of a single crane at the automated terminals of the ports of Shanghai and Qingdao exceeds 60 containers per hour, representing the world's highest port cargo handling efficiency.
China's water transport is not just rivers and seas, but also intelligent management systems, automated cranes and intermodal hubs. Three world‑class port clusters — in Bohai Bay, the Yangtze River Delta and the Greater Bay Area — are becoming centres of gravity for global logistics. The near‑doubling of rail‑water intermodal transport in five years shows that China is betting on multimodality. Sixty automated terminals represent 27% of the global market, and crane productivity in Shanghai and Qingdao is breaking records. All of this makes China not just the largest port operator, but a trendsetter in global logistics.
As reported by CCTV+, during the 15th Five‑Year Plan, China plans to continue modernising its port infrastructure and increasing the share of automated terminals.
