With North American shippers importing record amounts of Asia-made goods, the largest gains by volume were recorded at the Chinese ports of Shanghai, Ningbo-Zhoushan, and Shenzhen.
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
Press Releases
News & Analysis
21 Jan 2022
Yantian International Container Terminal (YICT) and Shekou Container Terminal are restricting the number of export containers they will accept in an effort to clear an existing backlog of boxes in advance of the Lunar New Year holiday on Feb. 1.
29 Oct 2021
A new agreement between California and the Biden administration seeks a more unified approach and “innovative” federal financing for port infrastructure projects that could speed goods inland.
16 Feb 2021
A growing gap between inventory and sales in many US business sectors is projected to drive replenishment, expedited shipping, and high levels of imports for months to come.
18 Aug 2020
Asian gateways continued to increase their dominant share of the global port market in 2019, handling nearly 80 percent of the total throughput of the top 50 container ports worldwide.
14 Jul 2020
Truck turn times in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach continue to improve, but truckers seek more timely information from carriers and terminals so they can further reduce visit times.
09 Jul 2020
An appellate court has denied the commission’s request for a rehearing of an earlier decision that would shift responsibility for background checks and criminal investigations at the largest US East Coast port to New Jersey state police.
02 Jun 2020
A group of 10 maritime bodies argues for accelerating the pace of port data standardization and adoption of modern, single-window systems, among a list of other initiatives.
18 May 2020
Combining FedEx’s logistics network with Microsoft’s AI, machine-learning, and cloud-computing capabilities, the companies plan to offer much more granular, near-real-time visibility for entire supply chains, as well as individual shipments.
24 Apr 2020
A new international distribution center in Houston blends US trucking and containerized imports as less-than-truckload carrier Averitt reaches deeper into US consumer markets.
31 Mar 2020
The Federal Maritime Commission will engage stakeholders on how it can maintain cargo fluidity in the supply chain during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in a bid to avoid disruption.
19 Mar 2020
FedEx expands use of its US ground unit to deliver more air express packages, as e-commerce volumes swell and Amazon ups the competitive ante.
12 Mar 2020
In picking former Home Depot CFO Carol Tomé as CEO, UPS puts a former customer from retail e-commerce leader in the driver’s seat.
02 Mar 2020
Initiatives aimed at turning container ports from conduits of physical freight activity into hubs for the digital information surrounding those cargo movements are underway in virtually every major global gateway.
24 Feb 2020
Terminal operators at Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT) have agreed to lift additional charges for direct port delivery (DPD) cargo they had previously sought to impose.
13 Feb 2020
The long-promised National Freight Strategic Plan should be about more than highways, groups representing US ports and shippers said this week. The question still is how to pay for freight priorities.
19 Dec 2019
Hutchison Ports will have to keep APM Terminals Rotterdam at arm’s length for a while once the sale is approved, with volume guarantees and a ban on firing staff also included the deal.
18 Nov 2019
The Port of New York and New Jersey has been a beneficiary of the nearly two-decade shift in container cargo from the West Coast to East and Gulf coasts, but its growth has not kept pace with its competitors in the Southeast, particularly with regard to discretionary cargo moving inland via rail.
23 Aug 2019
The Port of Virginia will shift more vessel calls to the Virginia International Gateway (VIG) terminal so shippers using rail can receive their cargo faster.
12 Aug 2019
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.
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.
29 May 2019
Singapore’s Tuas mega-port project is expected to bring greater efficiencies to existing operations while increasing capacity by about 20 million TEU annually in the first phase alone.
22 May 2019
The Port of Antwerp is expanding its program of extended terminal gates and launching a six-month test of 24-hour gates at two terminals as cargo volumes at the port continue to grow.
16 May 2019
Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka tells JOC.com a port-wide trucker appointment system and off-dock chassis storage must be implemented now if the nation's largest port complex is going to avoid terminal congestion and equipment dislocations in the upcoming peak season.
14 May 2019
Officials at the Port of New York and New Jersey say that although the steady increase in vessel sizes and discharge volumes at the port means that 20 percent of all containers are moved on ships of 13,000 TEU or more, the terminals have been able to handle the cargo smoothly.
14 May 2019
Software issues that marred the initial deployment of India’s redesigned port community system have been resolved, but broader stakeholder concerns over data security remain.
30 Apr 2019
Australian banking and investment group Macquarie Infrastructure Partners already has stakes in New Jersey's Maher Terminals at Port Elizabeth and Penn Terminals.
26 Mar 2019
Turloch Mooney, senior editor, global ports, JOC, discusses his findings on how the increase in average vessel and call s
30 Jan 2019
The injection of vessels comes as demand growth of Asia-Europe westbound volume slows.
28 Jan 2019
The ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland are investing billions in physical infrastructure, digitization, and process improvements to relieve congestion and speed container transport.
28 Jan 2019
The year 2019 will likely become one of the most consequential in a generation for container shipping; old challenges are off the table, but new ones have replaced them.
25 Jan 2019
Truck shortages, warehouse closures, and too many empty containers have exacerbated terminal and landside congestion.
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