IN the first six months of this year, both freight and passenger transportation in China dropped, according to the latest figures released by the State Statistics Bureau.
According to a China Daily report, freight transport volume in the period went down by 0.5 per cent over the corresponding 1992 period, standing at 1.34 billion tonnes.
Of the total, rail freight edged up 0.7 per cent to 766 million tonnes, while truck freight fell 7.6 per cent to 278 million tonnes.
Freight by boat climbed by 3.3 per cent to 310 million tonnes, while air freight soared 19.7 per cent to 291,000 tonnes.
Freight turnover - an important indicator in monitoring unit labour productivity and economic efficiency - slid 0.6 per cent to 1.22 trillion tonne-kilometres.
Of the total, railways reported a 1.5 per cent rise to 580 billion tonne-kilometres, while truck freight turnover fell 15.7 per cent to 15.28 billion tonne-kilometres.
Air freight turnover generated 738 million tonne-kilometres, up 26.4 per cent, but boat freight turnover dropped by 2.1 per cent to 629 billion tonne-kilometres.