The volume of cargo passing through China's ports every year is expected to rise by more than 50 percent in the next five years, a report said Tuesday.

　　Communications Minister Zhang Chunxian, speaking at a conference in Shanghai, said the total cargo volume would rise to 6.1 billion tons a year by 2010 from 4 billion tons last year, the state-run newspaper Shanghai Daily reported.

　　Zhang said the number of shipping containers passing through the country's ports will rise to 140 million TEUs, or 20-foot equivalent units, by 2010, up from 61.5 million last year, it said.

　　The amount of cargo handled by China's ports jumped 21.3 percent last year, the report said.

　　Shanghai, mainland China's biggest port, overtook Rotterdam in the Netherlands last year as the top overall cargo handling port, processing 380 million tons of goods, according to Chinese statistics.

　　China's economy is growing at a rate of more than 9 percent a year, straining international shipping capacity. Already the biggest cargo handling nation, China aims to become the leading global shipbuilder by 2015.