Shanghai Pudong International Airport Cargo Terminal (PACTL) has achieved record annual cargo throughput 2015 on the back of the growth of imports of consumer goods.

The Sino-German joint venture saw annual cargo volumes jump by 6.5% year on year in 2015 to 1.6m tonnes.

PACTL’s overall import cargo volumes increased by 9% compared to the previous year and rose to a total figure of 651,657 tonnes.

International imports soared by 9.4% to 602,004 tonnes and domestic imports increased by 4.3% to 49,653 tonnes.

PACTL vice president Lutz Grzegorz said: “Despite difficult market conditions, we were able to develop our business fully in line with our expectations.

“This is evident, for example, in the ongoing growth in international imports, which was caused by the rising demand for imported consumer goods such as perishables, pharmaceuticals and other high-value articles.”

Export cargo volumes grew by 4.8% on the 2014 level to 947,654 tonnes in total. International exports showed a growth rate of 4.4% to 892,223 tonnes and domestic exports increased by 11.5% to 55,431 tonnes.

The growth also pushed up PACTL’s marketshare at PVG, which was up by 1.4 percentage points compared with 2014 to 49.4%.