China's transport sector maintains steady growth in July: ministry

BEIJING, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- China's transport sector sustained stable growth in July, with both freight volumes and passenger flows rising and fixed-asset investment remaining strong, according to official data released Wednesday.

The sector handled 4.97 billion tonnes of freight last month, an increase of 3.4 percent from the same period a year earlier, and faster than the 2.9 percent growth in June, Li Ying, spokesperson for the Ministry of Transport, said at a press conference.

Specifically, freight volumes rose 4.5 percent for rail, 3.3 percent for road, 3.4 percent for waterway, and a robust 15.3 percent for civil aviation.

Port throughput nationwide also expanded at a faster pace. Cargo handled by Chinese ports reached 1.54 billion tonnes in July, up 6.9 percent year on year, with the growth rate accelerating by 2.2 percentage points from the previous month.

Passenger mobility continued to pick up, reflecting stronger travel demand. A total of 5.71 billion cross-regional passenger trips were recorded in July, representing a 2.2 percent increase compared to the same period last year, and also a 0.7 percentage point improvement from June.

Transport infrastructure investment stayed at a high level. Total fixed-asset investment in the sector reached 306.1 billion yuan (about 43.05 billion U.S. dollars) in July. Of this, railway investment accounted for 77.1 billion yuan, highway investment 200.5 billion yuan, waterway investment 17.3 billion yuan, and civil aviation investment 11.2 billion yuan.

"Overall, the transport sector maintained a steady upward momentum in July," Li said.