News
A list of the world's 10 busiest container ports in 2014 has been recently unveiled. The Port of Shanghai handled 35.258 million TEUs, which went up 5% from a year earlier. The Chinese port was the world’s leading container port for the fifth consecutive year. Shanghai was followed by the Port of Singapore, which processed 33.869 million TEUs, up 4%. Container throughput at the city-state's port exceeded 30 million TEUs for three years in a row. Shenzhen came in third place, to and from which 24.035 million TEUs were moved, up 3.3%. Chinese ports accounted for seven of the top 10, including Hong Kong.
The Port of Hong Kong was the only one of the 10 to suffer a year-on-year decline. A double-digit decrease registered in December (1.816 million TEUs, down 12%) had a severe impact on the port's annual performance. Handling 22.283 million TEUs, down 0.3%, Hong Kong finished in fourth place. Container lifting at Ningbo-Zhoushan soared 12.1% to 19.43 million TEUs, helping them promoted from sixth to fifth. The steep increase in container movement to and from the twin ports was made by industries located behind the ports. Busan fell to sixth, but throughput at the South Korean port managed to improve, up 5.5% to 18.65 million TEUs.
Ranked seventh was Qingdao, which processed 16.7 million TEUs, up 7.6%, and eighth, Guangzhou, 16.41 million TEUs, up 7.2%. The two Chinese ports came very close to Busan. Containers to and from the United Arab Emirates (UAE)’s Port of Dubai increased 11.8% to 15.2 million TEUs, which came in ninth. The last port of the top 10 was Tianjin, to and from which 14.5 million TEUs were transported, up 8.1%. The lineup from the seventh- to 10th-busiest container ports remained unchanged from 2013.
