China's shipping market was not growing as fast as expected in the first half of the year, but most port enterprises could still make a profit compared with those shipping companies, China Business News (CBN) reported Monday.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Transport, in the first half of the year, the cargo throughput in China's major ports reached 4.42 billion tons, up 13.2 percent year-on-year, which is 4.4 percentage points lower from the same period last year. The growth in cargo throughput saw a decline quarter-on-quarter, which increased by 15.4 percent in the first quarter and 11.2 percent in the second quarter year-on-year, the newspaper said.

Container throughput also grew slower. In the first half of the year, container throughput at China's major ports hit 77.7 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units, the standard for container ships), up 12.9 percent from a year ago and 9.6 percentage points lower than the same period last year.

The average monthly throughput is close to 13 million TEUs, which is the highest in history, the report said.

Chen Yi, an expert in the shipping industry, said the main reason the growth rate in throughput declined was because the demand decreased. Data in the same period last year, which created a high base, was another reason, he added.

Chen predicted cargo throughout China's major ports will continue to run high as China's economy still develops at a fast pace, but the growth rate will slow down as controlling inflation will be the priority with macroeconomic regulation. He said the growth rate of cargo throughput for the whole year will be maintained at around 10 percent, CBN reported.