China's ports shipped 45.5 million tons of commodity coal in February, a year-on-year increase of 32 percent, statistics show.
Included were 43.55 million tons for domestic market, up 40.4 percent, and 1.95 million tons for overseas market, down 45 percent.

According to analysts, more coal was shipped to southern China, which suffered heavy snowfalls earlier this year. So far, major power plants of snow-hit areas have stored coal enough for 14-day consumption.

Statistics show that the throughput of China's major ports amounted to 430 million tons in February, a year-on-year increase of 12 percent but 10 percent points lower than 2007.

Meanwhile, the container throughput of these ports reached 8.9 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), up 12.4 percent.

The import of iron ore and crude oil respectively went up 12.4 percent and 11.5 percent to 36 million tons and 13.95 million tons.