An aerial view of containers at the fourth phase of the Yangshan Deep-Water Port, the world's largest automated cargo terminal, in Shanghai, April 10, 2018. [Photo/IC]

SHANGHAI - Shanghai International Port (Group) Co Ltd (SIPG), the largest port group in the Chinese mainland, reported a record high container throughput last year.

SIPG, which operates all the public container and bulk terminals in the Port of Shanghai, said Tuesday that its container throughput in 2018 reached 42.01 million standard containers, or twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), up 4.4 percent year-on-year.

In its unaudited preliminary earnings estimate filed to the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the port operator said the new record made it the world's largest port in terms of container throughput for nine consecutive years.

Meanwhile, SIPG handled 561 million tonnes of cargo last year, flat from a year ago.

The company said its net income attributed to the shareholders exceeded 10 billion yuan ($1.48 billion) for two consecutive years.

The net profit attributed to its shareholders in 2018 reached 10.28 billion yuan, down 10.9 percent from the previous year, it said. Its revenues rose 2 percent to 38.15 billion yuan.

SIPG said it expanded the fund-raising channels for low-cost capital and its corporate finance fundamentals continued to be solid and sound.

Shares of SIPG rose 1.14 percent to close at 5.33 yuan Tuesday when the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed 1.36 percent higher at 2,570.34 points.