Cargo volumes at the busiest container gateways in China continued to grow in the first nine months of 2019, but at a slower rate than last year due in large part to a cooling European economy the country’s ongoing trade war with the United States.

The violations were centered on the ports of Shanghai, Tianjin, Qingdao, and Ningbo-Zhoushan.

The sold numbers come as other China government data indicates an improved trade and general economic environment.

Reliance on growth from an ever-expanding pie of box volumes growing in the high single or double-digits is a thing of the past for Chinese ports.

China’s top ports booked a healthy rise in throughput year-over-year in September.

Container throughput at China’s main ports rebounded in July after a poor first half of the year.

Container throughput at China’s top ports stayed positive in May.

China’s top container ports booked March throughput growth of 4.2 percent compared with the same month in 2015. The country’s top eight ports handled a combined 12.45 million twenty-foot-equivalent units in March, bringing their throughput into positive territory for the first quarter of 2016, with first-quarter volumes up 0.9 percent on the same period last year to 35.4 million TEUs.

Hong Kong slid to fifth place in the global port rankings after another dismal year of declining volumes, with the east Chinese port of Ningbo-Zhoushan stepping into fourth spot.

China’s Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, the fifth-largest in the world and third-busiest in China, lifted 20 million 20-foot-equivalent units for the first time in its history, joining an elite club of four other ports that have passed that milestone.

Ningbo Port Group sees potential in seaway-railway intermodal transport as the central Chinese port looks for more business.

The container throughput counter at Ningbo-Zhoushan port clicked over to 20 million TEUs at midnight last night, effectively sealing its place as the world’s fifth busiest container port and relegating Korea’s transshipment hub Busan to sixth place.

Ningbo-Zhoushan, the fastest growing major Chinese container port, is on track to supplant Busan as the fifth-largest global container gateway, according to new statistics