THROUGHPUT at Tianjin port in the first half of the year was 1.823 million TEU, an increase of 25.5 per cent over the same period last year.

Part of the reason the port is processing more cargo is because some container shipping companies operating out of Tianjin are now switching to larger vessels that can carry up to 6,000 TEU, Xinhau said.

The agency said that with the start of the summer peak season, Maersk-Sealand and China Shipping Container Lines had decided to use vessels with greater capacity than the 4,000 TEU ones they had previously.

Seventy-three international services operate out of Tianjin port to more than 100 destinations around the world. They include 10 services which were introduced during the first six months of 2004.