Shanghai Port, the world's busiest container port, saw its container volume rise 3.4 percent in March from a year earlier, basically steady from growth in the first two months of the year, data issued by the port's operator showed.

That was down just slightly from the rise of 3.6 percent in January and February combined, but slower than average growth last year.

The monthly figures for the first two months of the year are skewed by the timing of the Lunar New Year, which fell in January this year, but February last year, making the combined figure for the first two months more useful for comparison.

Container throughput at the port rose 9.2 percent in 2011 to 31.7 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).

Shanghai Port's container volumes over the past year, (Reuters)