A gantry crane loads cargo onto a freight train bound for central Asia at the Jiaozhou Bay International Logistics Harbor in Qingdao, a coastal city in east China's Shandong Province, May 7, 2018. The total value of goods carried by the logistics sector surged to 231.5 trillion yuan (about 33.3 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first 10 months, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said in a statement Wednesday. The total amount was up 6.6 percent year on year. The growth rate, however, edged down 0.1 percentage points when compared with that for the first three quarters of the year. Logistics expenditure was 10.7 trillion yuan in the first 10 months, up 8.6 percent, which was 1.8 percentage points lower than a year earlier. The Logistics Performance Index (LPI) stood at 54.5 percent in October, up 1.4 percentage points from September, the federation said. A reading above 50 percent indicates expansion from the previous month, while a reading below indicates contraction. The sector's stable performance came amid steady growth of China's economy, which expanded 6.7 percent in the first three quarters of the year, above the government's annual growth target of around 6.5 percent. (Xinhua/Guo Xulei)