Three of the busiest container ports worldwide — Singapore, Busan, and Hong Kong — are all heavily reliant on transshipment, while another primarily transshipment-oriented port, Colombo, saw the third-fastest growth in 2018 of any port in the JOC Top 50.
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Top 50 Global Container Ports
Top 50 Global Container Ports
Solid growth in global trade volumes in 2018 pushed the total container throughput of the 50 busiest cargo ports in the world up 4.6 percent year over year to almost half a trillion TEU, according to the JOC Top 50 Container Ports 2018 rankings.
The Port of Shanghai maintained its top spot on the list, reporting a 4.4 percent increase in container volume to just over 42 million TEU, more than four times the 9.5 million TEU handled by the busiest North American port, Los Angeles. Coming in at No. 2, the Port of Singapore reported the highest growth rate of any port in the top 20, increasing throughput 8.7 percent to 36.6 million TEU for the year.
JOC.com’s annual Top 50 Global Container Ports ranking is assembled using throughput data from port authorities, IHS Markit, and maritime industry analyst Alphaliner. IHS Markit is the parent company of JOC.com. The figures are expressed in millions of TEU, the most common measurement of containerized ocean shipping. One standard 40-foot ocean container equals two TEU. Non-containerized cargoes — i.e. dry bulk, liquid bulk, roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro), and oversized/heavy-lift project freight — are not included.
JOC Top 50 GLOBAL CONTAINER PORTS 2018
JOC Top 50 GLOBAL CONTAINER PORTS 2017
JOC TOP 50 GLOBAL CONTAINER PORTS 2016
JOC TOP 50 GLOBAL CONTAINER PORTS 2015
JOC TOP 50 GLOBAL CONTAINER PORTS 2014
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News & Analysis
09 Aug 2019
Asian gateways continued to dominate the global port market in 2018, handling more than three-quarters of the total throughput of the top 50 container ports worldwide.
02 Aug 2019
Terminal operators at Mexican ports say they need to work more closely with rails and truckers, and have better coordination with cargo owners to reduce shipping delays.
30 Jul 2019
The lead investor in a container support facility in Los Angeles criticized the port for what he termed giving in to political and ILWU pressure by declaring a key efficiency initiative known as the Harbor Performance Enhancement Center to be “infeasible.”
29 Jul 2019
Cargo is growing again at GCT New York, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey sees the terminal’s unused capacity as ripe for development to meet the port’s future needs.
20 Jun 2019
Amid intense scrutiny from longshore unions throughout North America, the LA harbor commission on Thursday approved a construction permit at APM Terminals Pier 400 that will open the door to a scalable type of automation that could be incorporated into smaller terminal operations in other ports.
31 May 2019
The two governments have agreed to help fund Sri Lanka’s East Container Terminal (ECT), a second facility under the Colombo South Harbor development program.
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