China is the world's largest exporter of container goods, producing 8 containers for every 10 new containers. It is a leading manufacturer of container ships and operates COSCO Shipping, the fourth largest liner company. It is not surprising that China occupies a dominant position in the global container port ranking with an overwhelming advantage - and with the surge of marine trade, the number of ports has reached a new peak.
Alphaliner released the annual ranking of the top 30 container ports in the world. Among the top 10, there are 9 in Asia, including 7 in China: Shanghai, Ningbo Zhoushan, Shenzhen, Guangzhou Nansha, Qingdao, Tianjin and Hong Kong.
In 2021, the top 30 ports handled 450 million TEU equivalent units, with a year-on-year increase of 6.5%. 2020 is the first year of the epidemic, and the growth rate is only 0.6%.
Asia's major ports, which long ago left competition behind, accounted for 77% of last year's top 30, while China alone accounted for nearly half, 47%. Alphaliner said that Shanghai, which has long defended the top of the list, "continues to establish a leading edge" and "has now opened a gap of nearly 10 million TEUs with its second place competitor Singapore".
Followed by European ports, accounting for 12% of the throughput of the top 30 ports, the United States accounting for 8% and the Middle East accounting for 3%. The United States has three ports on the list: Los Angeles / Long Beach ranked 10th, New York / New Jersey ranked 18th and Savannah, Georgia ranked 28th.
Comparing the latest ranking with that five years ago reveals how the world's largest port has maintained its dominance over time.
In 2016, the top 30 ports handled 377.8 million TEUs, equivalent to a 19% increase from 2016 to 2021. This is a compound growth rate of 3.6%, which is in line with the normal annual growth rate of global port throughput and is in line with the expectation of 2022 (Maersk forecasts 2% - 4%).
The reason for the return of the top 30 ports to the normal trend line is the abnormally high growth in 2021. According to Drury, throughput increased by 6.5% last year, including all ports in the world. This is the same as the growth level of the first 30 ports reported by alphaliner, 2% - 3% higher than usual.
Last year, some portals performed better than others, and there were some particularly big winners in the world's largest ports. According to alphaliner's data, the throughput of Shanghai increased by 3.5 million TEUs to 8%; Los Angeles / Long Beach 2.7 million TEUs (16%); Ningbo Zhoushan 2.3 million TEUs (8%); 2.2 million TEUs (8%) in Shenzhen; Tianjin 1.9 million TEUs (10%).
