Container throughput at major Chinese ports is expected to fall 7 percent this year to 120 million TEU, the Ministry of Transport said on Thursday.

Container shipments in the first nine months fell 7.8 percent from a year earlier to 88.97 million TEU, or twenty-foot equivalent units.

But in September alone, Chinas major ports handled 0.3 percent more containers than a year earlier -- the first year-on-year increase in 2009, the ministry said on its website.

In another sign that trade volumes are recovering, the ministry forecast a 4 percent increase for all of 2009 in cargo imported or exported through Chinese ports, a turnaround from the 4.2 percent decline seen in the first three quarters.