Container throughput at Zhoushan Port surged 44.86 percent year-on-year to 469,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) from January to March this year. [Photo/WeChat account: china-zjftz]

Zhoushan Port in Zhoushan, East China's Zhejiang province, witnessed a double-digit increase in both cargo throughput and river-sea combined transportation in the first quarter of this year, according to the local shipping and port bureau.

The port delivered 140 million metric tons of cargo and 66.91 million tons of cargo by river-sea combined transportation during the same period, year-on-year increases of 16.34 percent and 48.86 percent.

Statistics show that throughput of oil and gas, grain, coal, and iron ore increased 22.34 percent, 103.94 percent, 46.56 percent, and 1.19 percent year-on-year to 33.76 million tons, 3.1 million tons, 9.81 million tons, and 45.64 million tons, respectively.

Container throughput surged 44.86 percent year-on-year to 469,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).

Meanwhile, 29.56 million tons of iron ore and 5.69 million tons of oil products were transported from Zhoushan Port to cities along the Yangtze River, respective year-on-year increases of 7.63 million tons and 1.41 million tons.

In addition, Zhoushan Port piloted 1,453 international ships, a year-on-year increase of 25.8 percent.

Since December of last year, Zhoushan has implemented a series of measures to streamline the inspection of ships for bonded bunker oil refueling and recognize boundary check certificates from other ports in the Yangtze River Delta, easing the process of refueling and repairing international ships at Zhoushan Port.

In the last 10 days of March, boundary checkpoints in Zhoushan have served 885 international ships, saving them 650 hours and more than 4.4 million yuan ($674,000) in total.

In the first quarter of this year, Zhoushan is expected to offer 1.20 million tons of bonded bunker oil and $200 million in material supplies and generate 1.4 billion yuan in international ship repairs.