BEIJING, Sept. 28 -- China's waterway cargo transport logged steady expansion in the first eight months of this year, with the total freight volume rising 8 percent year on year, official data showed.

A total of 6.02 billion tonnes of cargo was transported via waterways in the country during this period, according to the Ministry of Transport.

In August alone, China's waterways handled 811.51 million tonnes of cargo, the data revealed.

During the January-August period, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province led the expansion among provincial-level regions, posting year-on-year growth of 35.2 percent. It was followed by Liaoning Province and Shaanxi Province.