A crane loads containers at Erenhot Port in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region on April 11, 2020. (Photo: Xinhua)

Container throughput at China's ports continued stable growth in the first three quarters of 2022, data from the Ministry of Transport shows.

During this period, some 219.33 million twenty-foot equivalent units of containers were handled at the country's ports, up 4 percent year-on-year, according to the ministry.

This growth maintained the trend of expansion in the first eight months of the year, when the volume of containers handled at China's ports rose 4.1 percent over one year ago.

In the Jan-Sept period, cargo throughput at China's ports edged up 0.1 percent year-on-year to 11.55 billion tons. Cargo throughput for foreign trade reached 3.42 billion tons, the data shows.

Cargo throughput at China's ports went up 1.8 percent year-on-year in the third quarter, reversing a contraction of 2.9 percent during the second quarter.