Seaports in east China's Shandong province have handled more than 300 million tons of goods in 2004,100 million tons more than two years ago, said Zhou Qiutian, director of the provincial Communications Department, in capital city Jinan on Thursday.

Zhou said by December 18 this year, seaports in Shandong handled a total of about 302 million tons of goods, up 18.2 percent from the last same period. It's the first time the yearly handling capability of Shandong seaports has surpassed 300 milliontons.

Zhao Kezhi, vice governor of Shandong, said that it took Shandong seaports 46 years to make its annual handling capability pass 100 million tons from the year 1949 and seven years to surpass 200 million tons. But in two years it has jumped to 300 million tons.

He also noted that by December 17, Qingdao port had handled five million TEUs of containers, meeting the international standard of container shipping center.

Source: Xinhua