Transport Market Becomes Brisk as Economy Heats Up

With the all-round increase of the national economy, in the first half of this year, the domestic transport market became increasingly brisk. The volumes of railway, airway, highway and waterway transportation all increased by a big margin.

In the first half of this year, the total rotation volume of transportation fulfilled by Civil Aviation and Administration of China (CAAC) was nearly 5.56 billion tons-kilometers; the number of the passengers handled hit 31.36 million; the volume of postal freights reached 894,000 tons, registering respective increases of 15.1 percent, 12.7 percent and 15.3 percent over the same period last year. Particularly gratifying is the fact that the domestic air transport of passengers set an all-time high in the past three years.

Statistics from Ministry of Railways show that the volume of railway passenger transport increased 11.9 percent and cargoes 5.9 percent over the same period last year, with the former much greater than the latter.

Highway transportation, once in a slump, increased at a rate above 1.6 percent in the first six months. Water transport created a situation of speedy growth seldom seen in the past 10 years. The handling capacity of major coastal ports in the first half of this year reached 793 million tons, up 27.5 percent, of which, foreign trade freight volume surged 41.2 percent.

According to the analysis by a person of the industry, the gross value of industrial output of the country in the first half of this year increased by 11.2 percent over the same period last year which is the highest value in the last three years. So, the increasingly vitalizing transport market benefits from the all-round growth of the national economy.

The substantial increases of key material transportation serves as a booster for the development of the transport market. The coal department, plagued by sustained difficulties, also showed a strong demand on the transport market this year. In the first half of 2000, the volume of coal handled by key coal mines reached about 200 million tons. Oil and grain also showed a vigorous transportation demand.

Experts pointed out that the heating up of the transport market has occurred under the circumstance of a buyer's market. In the past several years, the overall transportation capacity was relatively excessive. The situation of keeping the transport market going by painstaking efforts is being improved.



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