Cargo volume in road freight traffic in China 2008-2019

With an ever-increasing rate of urbanization and modernization taking place all over China, the country’s road network has become a sophisticated means of mobility. The year 2019 saw a drop in the overall volume of cargo transported by road in China, which was equal to 34.4 billion metric tons.

 Chinese road infrastructure 

As of 2018, China had one of the largest road networks in the world. It measured around 4.8 million kilometers, second only to the United States. The country’s public roads have extended to five million kilometers in the last twenty years, where expressways measured 150 thousand kilometers in length as of 2019, a tenfold increase on the last two decades.

 Road freight traffic 

Road density within China, which refers to the ratio of the length of the total road network to the country’s land mass, has been steadily on the rise. In 2019, road density measured about 52 kilometers per 100 square kilometers. The efficiency and ease of mobility provided by this network has spurred China’s trade and commerce to new heights. In 2019, cargo road freight traffic volume in China amounted to nearly six trillion ton-kilometers.