The world's busiest container ports have been announced
By the end of 2025, Shanghai became the world's busiest container port for the 16th consecutive time. It surpassed second-placed Singapore by more than 10 million TEUs. All of the world's eight largest container ports are located in East or Southeast Asia.
The world's busiest container ports have been revealed
Volumes were calculated in TEU — a conventional unit equal to a standard 20-foot, or approximately 6.1-meter-long container. The statistics included both loaded and empty containers.
The container throughput of the Port of Shanghai was more than five times higher than that of Los Angeles, the largest container port in the US.
China's ports accounted for nearly half of the total container throughput of the 30 ports in the ranking. This calculation also included Hong Kong, which recorded 13 million TEU.
The Port of Shanghai does not serve only the city itself. Inland waterways and railways connect it to industrial centers along the Yangtze River. Through this, manufacturers in central and eastern regions of China export their products to foreign markets.
The expansion of manufacturing to other Asian countries and the strengthening of China's trade ties with Southeast Asia are developing regional freight shipping networks. In this process, Chinese ports retain an important position.
Singapore's port model, on the other hand, is mostly based on connecting international maritime routes with one another. It has links with more than 600 ports around the world.
Here, containers are transferred from one ship to another and then head to their destination. In this sense, Singapore can be compared to a transit airport where passengers change flights. This system based on cargo transshipment helped the small city-state reach second place in the world.
Deep-water berths and automated electric cranes allow the new terminals to accommodate the largest container ships.
Singapore is further expanding its capacity by constructing the Tuas Port. The project envisions consolidating container operations into a single location. It is planned to be fully completed in the 2040s, after which the port's annual handling capacity is expected to reach 65 million TEU.