SHANGHAI Port moved 21 percent more boxes in May from a year earlier, as increasing trade in the world's fastest-growing major economy boosted demand for sea transportation, Bloomberg said today.

Shanghai Port's container volume rose to a record 2.21 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) last month, the local authority said in a statement on its Website. Total cargo handled by the port increased 22 percent to 31 million tons.

China's ports including Shanghai, the country's busiest container harbor, and Tianjin port (Stock Code: 600717) have gained from the nation's increasing shipments of toys and garments to the United States and Europe. The government plans to double the capacity of coastal ports by 2010 to keep pace with the rising cargo volume.

``Shanghai port is likely to surpass Singapore to become the world's busiest container harbor next year,'' said Wang Qingwei, board secretary of Shanghai International Port (Group) Co by phone today.

The port operator plans to handle 25 million TEUs this year, compared with 24.8 million TEUs handled in Singapore in 2006, currently the world's busiest container port. Hong Kong's container volume was 23.2 million TEUs last year.

Shanghai overtook Hong Kong to become the world's second-busiest container port in the first quarter.

Shanghai's US$16 billion Yangshan deep-water port will help expand the city's container handling capacity to 30 million boxes by 2010. The first phase of the port opened in December, 2005.