On August 13,
China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced that in the first half of this year
China's logistics sector recorded a 9.1 percent year-on-year rise in the total value of goods transported to RMB 93.1 trillion ($15.2 trillion), while this growth rate was down 0.9 percentage point compared to that recorded in the same period last year. Demand in the domestic logistics sector in terms of transportation of bulk commodities was sluggish in the period in question, with demand slow for transportation of iron and steel products, coal and cement.