Throughput growth at the world’s 30 largest container ports exceeded 6.5% in 2021, as gains offset last year’s losses for many individual ports.
The 30 leading ports handled 450 Mteu during the year, versus 421 Mteu in 2020.
Shanghai continued to build on its lead as the world’s busiest container port recording its 12th year at the top and its 12th year of consecutive growth.
It has now opened up a gap of nearly 10 Mteu on its nearest competitor, Singapore.
China’s next four largest ports- Ningbo-Zhoushan, Shenzhen, Guangzhou-Nansha and Qingdao – have also closed the gap on Singapore, with Ningbo-Zhoushan now just 6.5 Mteu behind the Lion Republic.
Singapore’s throughput has remained largely static during COVID, falling nearly a percent in 2020 and rising just 1.6% in 2021.
The twin ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach moved up to 9th position, recording growth of 15.8% in 2021.
They saw the greatest increase by volume and handled an impressive extra 2.7 Mteu during the year despite heavy congestion from the flood of imports.
Total volumes for the port exceeded 20 Mteu for the first time ever in 2021. New York/New Jersey also climbed two rankings during 2021 and is currently the world’s 18th largest port with nearly 9 Mteu processed.
A second US east coast port, Savannah, also reaped the benefits of the consumer boom, jumping from 35th to 28th place after increasing throughput nearly 20% during the year.
Source: Alphaliner
