TIANJIN, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Throughput of TEUs (twenty-foot container equivalent units) at China's ports is expected to hit 100 million by the end of 2007, said a senior Chinese traffic official.

Weng Mengyong, vice minister of communications, said this on Friday at the 2007 International Ocean Shipping Convention held in north China's Tianjin Municipality.

In the first nine months of 2007, China's ports handled 82.11 million TEUs and a total of 3.9 billion tons of cargo, up 22.7 percent and 15.5 percent respectively over the same period last year, the vice minister said.

China's ports handled a total of 5.6 billion tons of cargo and 93 million TEUs last year.

The throughput of cargo and TEUs at Chinese ports has been the largest in the world for five consecutive years, Weng said.

Last year, China had 12 ports with cargo throughput exceeding 100 million tons. Shanghai port handled 530 million tons of cargo last year, making it the busiest in the world.

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