Sea container traffic in the southern Chinese boomtown of Shenzhen grew more than 32 percent in the first six months from the same period in 2003, the Shenzhen Municipal Port Authority said on Monday.
Shenzhen port handled 6.06 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of goods from January to June, as south China's export engine continued to hum despite central government moves to cool red-hot economic growth.
Throughput in the city's three major container terminals rose between 20 percent and 64 percent in the first half of the year.
"The growth of traffic was good in the first half and is in line with expectations," a port official said.
The city expects to move 13 million TEUs of goods this year.
"The peak season falls in the second half, so we should have no problem achieving our target," he added.
Shenzhen handles a big chunk of the goods made in the Pearl River Delta and shipped to the rest of the world.
The city borders Hong Kong, the world's busiest container port. Analysts say Shenzhen has attracted many price-sensitive shippers who want to export directly from the mainland instead of trucking their goods to Hong Kong for export.
Shenzhen is the second-largest container port in mainland China after Shanghai.
In Shanghai, first-half throughput rose 29.3 percent from a year earlier to 6.75 million TEUs, according to preliminary figures.