A view of the Shulanghu port area of Ningbo Zhoushan Port. [Photo/cnnb.com.cn]

The cargo throughput of Ningbo Zhoushan Port hit 1.028 billion metric tons from January to October, up 4 percent year-on-year, official data from the Zhejiang Port and Shipping Management Center showed.

This is the fifth consecutive year the port has seen its cargo throughput exceed 1 billion tons.

Over the same period, the port handled 26.72 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), up 11 percent year-on-year.

In October, the port opened an additional shipping route, bringing its total number of routes to 285.

Intensified efforts have also been made to tap the sea-rail combined transport model, which refers to the mechanism where goods are first loaded onto trains to Ningbo before being transported overseas by sea, and vice versa.

To date, the port has launched freight train routes to 61 prefecture cities in 16 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions across the nation.

Measures like optimizing route allocation have been taken by its operators to relieve the shortage of containers in the market.

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

The handling volume of iron ore, coal, liquefied oil products, and grain at the port also saw stable growth over the 10-month period.