South China's Pearl River cargo volume is expected to rise 10 per cent in 2013 while throughput at its major ports is predicted to rise 12 per cent, according to Ministry of Transportation's Pearl River Administration Navigation office. Pearl River waterway transport investment increased 21 per cent in 2012 year on year to a record of CNY5.67 billion (US$924 million). Forty-one kilometres of a 5,000-tonne navigational channel at the estuary at Yamen county, as well as 1,279 kilometres of other navigation channels, were upgraded, according to Pearl River navigational affairs director Yong Qingzeng. By January 2013, there were 15,551 kilometres of channels on the Pearl.