Shanghai has extended its lead as the world’s largest container port with state media reporting the eastern Chinese metropolis handled just over 47m teu in 2021, an 8% increase over 2020. Shanghai has been the world’s largest container port for the past 12 years.
Singapore in second place has yet to publish its full year figures, with Splash estimating the numbers will likely come in at approximately 37.5m teu, up 2.5% year-on-year.
In third place in the box rankings, the port of Ningbo-Zhoushan, situated to the south of Shanghai, celebrated passing the 30m teu mark for the first time in mid-December. Ningbo-Zhoushan is also the world’s largest port in overall cargo throughput terms.
Most ports around the world have yet to report their full year box figures. Among the biggest climbers up the ports leaderboard is expected to be the port of Los Angeles, which celebrated last month the moment it became the first port in the western hemisphere to handle more than 10m teu in a calendar year with year-on-year growth estimated to be 19%.
