CHINA's ports handled a total of 17.4 million TEU in October, an increase of nine per cent compared to the same month a year earlier.

Within this total throughput at the nation's sea ports rose by 9.2 per cent to 15.6 million TEU, while inland ports registered a year-on-year increase of 6.5 per cent at 1.7 million TEU.

Last month China's ports collectively handled 944.7 million tonnes of cargo, up 5.5 per cent against October 2013.

A breakdown of the results show that a total of 646,7 million tons passed through the sea ports, up 5.7 per cent, while inland port volumes rose by 5.2 per cent to 298 million tonnes.

In the first 10 months of the year containerised cargo volumes rose by six per cent to total 166.5 million TEU, with sea ports achieving volume growth of 6.9 per cent at 149.9 million TEU, while inland port volumes fell by one per cent to 16.7 million TEU year on year.

Between January and October, Chinese ports handled a combined 9.3 billion tons of cargo, an increase of 4.6 per cent against the same period a year earlier. Sea port volumes grew by 5.6 per cent to 6.4 billion tons, and inland ports registered growth of 2.3 per cent at 2.8 billion tons of cargo.