BEIJING, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Throughput at China's inland river ports registered robust growth in the first quarter, a report released by Shanghai International Shipping Institute showed.

Freight handled at the country's major ports grew 6.6 percent year on year in the first quarter to nearly 3.15 billion tonnes.

Among them, inland river port throughput rose 15.4 percent, contributing mainly to the steady growth of port production in the first quarter in China, according to the report.

Given that China has improved the deep-water channel of the lower stream of the Yangtze River, the longest inland waterway in the country, to over 12.5 meters deep, there was a big rise in the number of vessels with 100,000 to 200,000 tonnes deadweight making the lower reaches of the Yangtze their ports of call.

The ports such as Zhenjiang, Nantong, Wuxi all saw surging freight handled with growth rate of more than 10 percent, the report said.