BEIJING - Shanghai International Port on Sunday reported fast growth in net profit last year as trade growth pushed up shipping demand.

In an unaudited report filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the company said the net profit attributable to shareholders rose 66.1 percent to 11.5 billion yuan ($1.8 billion).

The world's busiest container port attributed the growth mainly to rising cargo and container throughput.

Cargo throughput rose 9.1 percent to 560 million tons, and the company handled 40.2 million standard containers, or twenty-foot equivalent units, up 8.4 percent from 2016.

Business revenue rose 19 percent year on year to 37.3 billion yuan, while the total assets rose 21.5 percent to 142 billion yuan, the company said.

"In 2017, world economic growth and China's foreign trade growth laid the foundation for international container transportation demand and pushed up the port's throughput growth," the company said.

China's foreign trade rose 14.2 percent year-on-year in 2017, ending two years of drops, the General Administration of Customs said Friday.