A container ship anchors at Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, waiting to be unloaded. [Photo by Yao Feng/For China Daily]

The cargo throughput of Ningbo-Zhoushan Port amounted to 826.71 million metric tons from January to August, up 5.3 percent year-on-year, official data from the Zhejiang Port and Shipping Management Center showed.

Over the same period, the port handled 21.36 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), up 14.7 percent year-on-year.

In August, the port opened an additional four shipping routes, bringing its total number to 281.

In addition, it opened a seal-rail freight route to Shaanxi province and increased the number of trains to cities like Chongqing and Chengdu.

To date, the port has launched 19 sea-rail freight routes, with businesses covering 60 prefecture-level cities across the nation.

The port's operator has rolled out a number of preferential policies to relieve the shortage of containers in the market caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

About 4.94 million empty containers were supplied at the port in the first eight months of this year.

It contributed partly to the normal operation of steel mills and power plants in the country.

Stable growth was seen in the handling volume of iron ore, coal, liquefied oil products, and grain at the port over the eight-month period.