Freight traffic

Transportation correlates with the trade pattern and the level of infrastructure sophistication. For example, the surge of highway transport in the early 1990s was the result of port congestion and the boom of domestic trade. As China's trade volume continues to expand rapidly , the strain on China's transportation infrastructure will become greater. Recognizing this, China's national and regional governments have been investing in improvements to physical infrastructure. In addition, freight forwarding and document processing are crucial elements to addressing this demand.

In the view of experts, in order to capitalize on the potential growth of the cargo market, China must improve its transportation infrastructure, open its freight forwarding sector, improve service standards and streamline customs procedures.

Freight forwarding, in its professional sense, is still concentrated in the area of foreign trade where three- quarters of cargo volume is conducted via seaborne transport. In 2000 the leading ports in China registered an aggregate cargo throughput of 1.7 billion tons, an increase of 17.3 per cent year over year. Within the total foreign trade cargo throughput amounted to 0.57 billion tons, up 33.2 per cent over 1999. Within the throughput of the leading ports, export cargo traffic is 46.5 per cent, and import cargo traffic is a little bit higher than export at 53.5 per cent.

Table 2.11.1: Total cargo transport: volumes , turnovers and growth rates of different transport modes (units: million tons/billion ton-km)

	Waterways		Highways		Railways		Pipelines		Airways
Year	Cargo Volume	Turnover	Cargo Volume	Turnover	Cargo Volume	Turnover	Cargo Volume	Turnover	Cargo Volume	Turnover
1980	468	507.7	1,422	34.3	1,113	571.7	105	49.1	0.09	0.1
1985	633	772.9	5,381	190.3	1,307	812.6	137	60.3	0.20	0.4
1990	801	1,159.2	7,240	335.8	1,507	1,062.2	158	62.7	0.37	0.8
1995	1,132	1,755.2	9,404	469.5	1,659	1,287.0	153	59.0	1.01	2.2
1996	1,274	1,786.3	9,839	501.1	1,688	1,297.0	160	58.5	1.15	2.5
1997	1,134	1,923.5	9,765	527.2	1,697	1,309.7	160	57.9	1.25	2.9
1998	1,096	1,940.6	9,760	548.3	1,612	1,231.2	174	60.6	1.40	3.3
1999	1,146	2,126.3	9,904	572.4	1,569	1,261.6	202	62.8	2.00	4.2
2000	1,224	2,373.4	10,388	612.9	1,744	1,390.2	187	63.9	1.97	5.0
2000	6.8	11.6	4.9	7.1	11.2	10.2	“7.4	1.8	“1.5	19.0
growth (%)
Source: China Shipping Report 2001.

Table 2.11.2: Throughputs and growth rates of the leading Chinese ports from 1990 to 2000

Year	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000
Throughput (million tons)	716	778	877	956	1039	1116	1274	1310	1124	1450	1701
Growth (%)	“3.1	8.7	12.7	9.0	8.7	7.4	14.2	2.8	“14.2	29.0	17.3
Source: China Shipping Report 2001.