BEIJING - China's railway network registered steady growth in cargo transport in the first three quarters of the year, data from the China State Railway Group Co Ltd showed.

The country's State-operated railways handled over 3.15 billion tons of cargo in the past nine months, an increase of 181 million tons, or up 6.1 percent year-on-year.

During the period, the average number of daily loaded cargo trains expanded 7 percent to around 150,000, with September seeing the highest monthly level of 159,200 trains.

In breakdown, cargo volume of cold-chain logistics and containers climbed by 31.7 percent and 31.2 percent year-on-year, respectively.

Logistics costs were slashed by 7 billion yuan during the period as efforts were stepped up to lower freight rates and miscellaneous fees, according to the company.

China aims to increase its total railway cargo volume by 30 percent from 2017 level to reach about 4.8 billion tons in 2020, a three-year government action plan unveiled last year said.