Top 50 Global Container Ports

First-half profit at Shanghai International Port Group fell as the economic slowdown in China dampened demand for shipping services.

The reign of container terminals as profit leaders in supply chains is under pressure.

Slowing global growth, liner overcapacity, and high capital expenditure needs will test the resilience of Asia's ports over the next couple of years.

Rotterdam’s lead over Antwerp as Europe’s largest container port continues to narrow.

The shipping industry is anxiously awaiting efforts by the Hong Kong government to help the territory's port cope with a number of issues it is facing.

The first meeting of the newly formed Hong Kong Maritime & Port Board will take place early next month. Chaired by the secretary for Transport & Housing, the body is an amalgam of the old Maritime Industry Council and the Port Development Council. It is designed to deliver more effective governance and strategy over the development of the territory’s port and maritime sector.

The rough Asia-Europe trade market and tit-for-tat sanctions between Russia and the West had a devastating impact on the Port of Hamburg’s throughput in 2015 by causing it to lose its status as the second-busiest port in Europe.

A 30-year terminal industry veteran will head Modern Terminal’s Hong Kong facility, the terminal operator’s crown jewel, as the port faces intense pressure from Pearl River Delta competitors and transshipment rival Busan.

Hong Kong slid to fifth place in the global port rankings after another dismal year of declining volumes, with the east Chinese port of Ningbo-Zhoushan stepping into fourth spot.

Rotterdam’s container volume shrank by 0.5 percent year-over-year in 2015 but total throughput reached a record on a sharp rise in crude oil shipments.

The Singapore port is reducing the fees it charges container lines 10 percent as the volume at the world’s second-busiest port and Asia’s top transshipment hub sags.

China’s Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, the fifth-largest in the world and third-busiest in China, lifted 20 million 20-foot-equivalent units for the first time in its history, joining an elite club of four other ports that have passed that milestone.

Container transshipment volumes at the Port of Busan were up almost 10 percent in October as the South Korea hub steadily grows this transit cargo segment than accounted for 53 percent of its throughput during the month.

Container throughput at the port of Singapore fell by nearly 16 percent in November compared with the same month last year.

Los Angeles and Long Beach have regained much of the market share they lost this past year because of port congestion and labor issues, and they will grow in the years ahead through massive investments in infrastructure and cutting-edge process improvements in cargo-handling, the top executives as both ports said this week.

The port of Antwerp said its annual container traffic will exceed 9 million 20-foot-equivalent units for the first time in 2015 and total cargo throughput will also set a new record of more than 200 million tonnes (220 tons).

The port of Busan in South Korea saw a rise of over 9 percent in its transshipment container throughput in the month of October as its continued growth in the segment erased losses in gateway volumes.

The 10 ports on the JOC's list of fastest-growing leading global container ports for 2014 each achieved year-over-year throughput growth of at least 10 percent.

It’s been five years since Shanghai toppled Singapore for the No. 1 spot in the JOC Top 50 container port rankings, and Shanghai firmly led with a 1.4 million-TEU spread in the 2014 results.

China’s top 20 coastal ports in April began to claw back some of the container volumes lost during the dismal foreign trade recorded in March, even though exports continued to fall in year-over-year comparisons.

The Port of Virginia reported March volume of 229,410 20-foot-equivalent units — an increase of 16 percent year-over-year, and a port monthly record — but the increased volume has strained operations at Hampton Roads terminals.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott has made a giant bet that Florida, and, in particular, Miami, will muscle its way into the container port gateway business, moving cargo to and from points well beyond the port confines.

DP World on Thursday announced it is buying Maher Terminal’s Fairview Container Terminal in Prince Rupert, British Colombia, from Germany’s Deutsche Bank, for C$580 million ($457 million).

The Port of Savannah’s volume of loaded containers in February jumped 8.6 percent from a year earlier as the Georgia Ports Authority posted across-the-board cargo increases.

Dubai’s DP World booked an 11.8 percent increase in 2014 profit as it benefited from its focus on container terminals in fast-growing emerging markets.

The Port of Busan plans to handle 20 million TEUs this year after posting record volume in 2014, mainly because of healthy transshipment traffic.

Container traffic jumped 5.8 percent in 2014 at the port of Rotterdam, putting it on track to post one of the highest increases in the fiercely competitive Le Havre-Hamburg port range after years of the port trailing its rivals.

The congestion that hit Asia hard in 2014 took many ports by surprise, and even as a new year begins there is no sense that terminal operators will find solutions soon to lengthy delays and productivity shortfalls.

The port of Antwerp boosted container traffic 4.5 percent in 2014 to just short of 9 million TEUs, marginally outpacing the 4.2 percent growth in total throughput to a new record high of 198.8 million metric tons.

Rotterdam’s container traffic increased 4.2 percent year-over-year in the first three quarters of 2014 as strong growth on deep-sea routes offset lower feeder shipments.

Antwerp’s container traffic grew 5 percent year-over-year in the first three quarters of 2014, putting the Belgian port on track for a record total throughput in 2014.

Congestion-caused delays at the largest U.S. port complex are pushing up outbound spot market truck rates from the Los Angeles-Long Beach market to inland distribution points.

Asia’s transshipment hubs are under increasing pressure to achieve a sustained level of productivity as mega-vessels and the alliances drive up competition, TPM Asia Conference delegates heard today.

From the top to the bottom, here is a list of the ports that moved up in 2013, and those that are in danger of falling down — or even off — the list of the Top 50 World Container Ports.

The persistent congestion clogging major gateway ports in the U.S. and Europe is raising a debate about whether it’s just peak-season volumes causing delays in import shipments or the inability of ports to handle the sharp growth in container ship sizes.

Violence flared at Ningbo’s Beilun Container Port as thousands of striking truck drivers clashed with riot police and smashed the windshields of trucks crossing a picket line, according to the Hong Kong-based China Labor Bulletin.

Asia is king among global container ports, even if stalwarts such as Hong Kong, which slipped to fourth place last year in part because of a 40-day dockworker strike at five terminals, have retreated a bit.

China’s top 10 container ports handled almost 13 million TEUs in May, a growth of 2.4 percent over the same month last year, with the most impressive figures continuing to be generated by Ningbo-Zhoushan port.

The latest vessel productivity numbers derived and analyzed from the JOC Port Productivity database should be welcome news for marine terminal operators and port authorities. Productivity at many terminals improved in the first six months of 2013 compared to the previous numbers covering all of 2012.