BEIJING — China's ports saw a slight expansion of cargo throughput in the first four months of the year despite COVID-19 disruptions, official data showed.

Cargo throughput at the country's ports neared 4.91 billion tons in the period, edging up 0.2 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Transport.

During the January-April period, the container handling volume at China's ports rose 1.7 percent from a year ago to 91.04 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), the data showed.

In April alone, China's ports handled more than 1.27 billion tons of cargo, while container throughput stood at 23.66 million TEUs, according to the ministry.