Tianjin International Shipping Industry Expo 2024 kicked off on Wednesday, aiming to build a platform for international cooperation and exchange in the shipping industry.

The four-day expo set nine exhibition areas to all-round display shipping industry chain equipment, technology and services, attracting over 400 enterprises, well-known ports, and industry associations.

During the expo, the Port Economic Development Report of Chinese Seaport Cities 2024 was released by the Transport Planning and Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport.

According to the report, Chinese seaport cities saw the added value of their port economy amount to 6.2 trillion yuan ($869.05 billion) in 2023, which accounted for 13.4 percent of these cities' total economic output. The added value increased by 192.9 billion yuan over the previous year.

The report provides a comprehensive evaluation of the port economic development of the country's 59 seaport cities.

Notably, the Yangtze River Delta region's seaport cities contributed 44.7 percent of the total added value of the port economy, thereby emerging as the most developed area of the port economy among coastal regions.

In 2023, the port economy accounted for 15 percent, 22 percent and 8 percent of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries in seaport cities, respectively, significantly supporting the primary and secondary industries, the report said.

The report noted that China's port economy is still based on fundamental traditional industries, facing the problems of low technological content, incomplete industrial chain and less cluster development.