SHANGHAI'S container throughput in the first quarter reached 5.885 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units), overtaking Hong Kong for the first time to become the world's largest container port city, the local port authority announced yesterday.

Shanghai ports registered an increase of 28.1 percent from the same period last year, according to the Shanghai Port and Shipping Administrative Bureau, the Labor Daily reported.

Although Shanghai leads Hong Kong by 384,000 TEUs in container shipping in the first three months of this year, its international cargo transferring rate, which accounts for less than three percent of its total container throughput, was much lower than that of Hong Kong, which is more than 30 percent, the report said.

Shanghai will further improve the operation of the Yangshan Deep-Water Port and attempt to adopt a more attractive tax rebate policy to strengthen its business and lift its international status, officials from the port authority said.

As the powerhouse of Shanghai's port industry, Yangshan Deep-Water Port achieved record cargo throughput of 420,000 containers in March, up nearly 100 percent year on year, according to the local port authority.

The deep-water port is at the mouth of the Qiantang River, about 45 kilometers from the Pudong International Airport. It is designed to have an annual handling capacity of 25 million containers when the entire project is completed in 2020.