Shanghai port is expected to handle 35.2 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) this year, up 4.8 percent from 2013, as the city consolidates its ranking as the world’s biggest container port, city officials told a press briefing.

Meanwhile, passenger traffic at the city’s two airports is estimated to rise 6.3 percent from a year ago to 88 million this year, said Sun Jianping, director of Shanghai Transportation Commission.

The city’s cargo throughput is expected to grow 5.6 percent to 3.55 million tons. Dry bulk cargo throughput, however, may fall 2.9 percent to 754 million tons this year.

In the first 11 months of this year, 250 cruise ships docked at Shanghai port and the number of passengers jumped 60 percent from the same period a year earlier to 1.17 million.

In 2015, Shanghai will continue to work on a negative list in the shipping and transport sector and to deepen reform on customs clearance procedure.

The city will also construct the fourth phase of the Yangshan Deep-water Port and follow-up projects at Wusong International Cruise Ship Terminal, as well as a number of transport infrastructure projects.

The city completed various port facility projects this year, including the expansion of a tax rebate program to eight cities in Jiangsu, Shandong and Hubei provinces. The program was previously applied in Qingdao and Wuhan.

The program allows refunds of exported goods to be claimed at their ports of departure if shippers use Yangshan as a transit port.

The city will also renovate the runways at the two airports, and inland waterway dredging projects in 2015.

Shanghai will apply shipping policies in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone faster and look into launching freight index derivatives trading, the commission said.