The volume of cargo processed at South Korea’s seaports rose slightly from a year earlier in April from growth in imports and exports, the oceans ministry said Thursday.

South Korea handled 115.15 million tons of cargo last month, up 2.5 percent from the same month last year, according to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.

“It appears the overall volume continued to expand as import-export cargo maintained its upward trend amid growing shipments to China, Europe and the United States,” a ministry official said.

Import-export cargo increased 3.7 percent on-year to 95.64 million tons in April.

The amount of container cargo processed at the country’s seaports gained 3.6 percent on-year to some 2.09 million twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEUs), the ministry said.

Import-export cargo, in terms of containers, rose 4 percent on-year to 1.25 million TEUs while trans-shipment cargo also gained 3.6 percent to about 836,000 TEUs. Trans-shipment cargo refers to shipments handled here en route to a final destination, mostly to change means of transportation.

The country’s largest seaport in Busan processed 1.58 million TEUs, up 2 percent from the same period last year, while the second-largest port in southwestern Gwangyang jumped 14 percent on-year to 201,000 TEUs.