CHINA’S fixed investment in highways and waterways in the first quarter reached 254.6 billion yuan (US$39.35 billion), up 7 percent year on year, the transport ministry said Tuesday.

    Of the investment, 228.9 billion yuan was in highways, a year-on-year increase of 8.5 percent.

    The growth rate in western regions hit 11.1 percent year on year, which was much higher than the central and eastern China, Ministry of Transport (MOT) data showed.

    A total of 4.87 billion trips were made and 8.79 billion tons of freight were transported via railways, highways and waterways in Q1, MOT official Zhang Dawei said. The number of journeys was down 1.8 percent from the same period last year, and freight tonnage rose 2.1 percent year on year.

    In Q1, the cargo-handling capacity of major ports increased 1.7 percent year on year to 2.76 billion tons, and the container throughput increased 1.9 percent to 50 million standard units, Zhang said.

    Logistics business volume surged more than 50 percent in the first three months, he said, compared with the same period last year.

    Zhang expects the current momentum in freight transportation to remain throughout the first half of 2016 while passenger traffic growth will remain subdued as a result of industrial restructuring.(Xinhua)