Zhoushan handled 129 million metric tons of cargo via river-sea combined transportation in the first half of this year, accounting for 50.4 percent of the city's target set for this year, official data from the Zhoushan municipal port navigation and administration bureau show.

The figure also represented a yearly uptick of 2.1 percent year-on-year.

The river-sea combined transportation mode allows goods shipped from overseas to Zhoushan to be transported to and from inland cities along the Yangtze River directly.

In March 2018, the local authorities rolled out an action plan to integrate into the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, in which they set the goal of increasing cargo throughput to 250 million tons via the river-sea transportation by 2020. 

Now, the city's river-sea traffic volume accounts for 16 percent of the total along the Yangtze River. It is primarily responsible for the transportation of iron ore and grain along the river, transporting about 50 percent and 60 percent of the total of each commodity, respectively. 

From January to June, a total of 532,000 tons of iron ore were transported by Zhejiang Xinyihai Shipping Co Ltd from Zhoushan's sea ports to China Baowu Steel Group in Wuhan, which rests in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, an increase of 13.62 percent year-on-year. 

Baowu Steel is not alone. The city now provides services to more than 50 large and medium-sized steel enterprises along the Yangtze River and in the northwest region, with an annual freight volume of more than 15 million tons.

In late May, Zhoushan has also opened its first bean pulp river-sea combined transport route to Anhui province.

Meanwhile, the city has also been expanding the scale of its fleet with ships suitable for both sea and river. Construction on eight such bulk vessels and eight container vessels has begun or will begin in the city, with an investment of 1.437 billion yuan.

An online information-sharing platform designed for river-sea combined transportation has been launched by the city, with services covering more than 3,000 shipping and logistics companies across the nation.