Global Port Throughput at A Glance

The transportation sector can be considered as a strong and influential factor in terms of economic development. It plays a paramount role in linking the countries to the world economic market. On the other hand, ports constitute an important and critical economic activity in coastal areas and offer a huge potential for flourishing and thriving economy.

News ID: 78755

Date: 24 February 2018 - 09:57

The world’s busiest ports are commonly ranked by cargo tonnage and by volume of container shipment measured in TEUs. Butter put, container traffic passing through ports can determine busiest ports in the world. Alphaliner data shows that container throughput at 250 ports around the world grew by an estimated 6.7% in the first half of 2017.According to the latest reports, China’s port of Shanghai recorded a new box volume in 2017. In a way that, container throughput at Shanghai port surpassed 40 million TEUs in the last year. It can be asserted that this port increased its dominance as the world’s busiest port with annual throughput in 2017 reaching 40m TEU.

The port of Shanghai has been the world’s busiest port since 2010 when it surpassed the port of Singapore in terms of annual container traffic. Moreover, in 2016, Shanghai port reported container volumes of 37.1 million TEUs, a 1.6 percent -rise compared to 36.5 million TEUs seen in 2015.In addition, Shanghai Yangshan Deep Water Port, the world’s biggest automated container terminal, commenced its trial operations in the last year.“The automated terminal not only increases the port’s handling efficiency, but also reduces carbon emissions by up to 10 percent,” said Chen Wuyuan, the head of Shanghai International Port Group. Thiswill make a big contribution to strength Shanghai port’s standing as the world’s busiest container port and on the other hand, support Shanghai’s efforts to become a world shipping center.

Singapore port as the toughestcompetitor of Shanghai container port handled 33.7m teu last year up 8.9% on 2016, however, these figures were still lower than the record year of 2014. It is worth noting that the port of Singapore has emerged as a strong winner from the reshuffling of global shipping alliances, with box traffic rising 8.9 percent last year.in addition to reshuffling of alliances, the improvements in global trade was another factor which resulted in this growth. Singapore also managed to retain its status as the world’s top bunkering port last year, the total volume of bunkers sold in the port of Singapore experienced an upward trend by 4.2 percent to 50.6 million tonnes, compared to 48.6 million tonnes in 2016.In the United States, the port of Los Angelesis the busiest container port and together with the port of Long Beach makes Southern California the largest gateway for this country’s imports. In 2017, Los Angeles port with the movement of 9,343,192 TwentyFoot Equivalent Units (TEUs), staged a performance which was better than in any time in the port’s 110-year history, it also indicated a 5.5 percent increase over 2016’s record-breaking year. year.

In order to keep cargo flowing efficiently, the port of Los Angeles and GE Transportation in 2016, announced that they were teaming up to pilot a first of-its-kind port information portal, a unique and unparalleled approach to demonstrate the benefits of digitizing maritime shipping data and making it available to cargo owners and supply chain operators.

In Asia, South Korean Busan port recorded a container throughput of 20 million TEUs in the last year, the highest cargo volume in the port’s history. It also indicated an improvement from the 19.85m TEU handled in 2016.In general, South Korean ports handled 1.57 billion tons of cargo in 2017, marking a rise of 4.1 percent in total cargo volumes from the last year. It must be added that ports of Busan, Gwangyang and Incheon experienced more volumes, reporting increases of 10.5 percent, 3.1 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively. In other parts of Asia, the port of Hong Kong has maintained its place as the fifth busiest container port in the world at the end of last year. Moreover, in 2016, Hong Kong port had slipped to 6th position behind Busan port when the South Korean facility recorded throughput of 19.85m teu compared with 19.81m teu achieved by Hong Kong.The major ports in India have recorded a growth of 3.64% and together handled 499.41 Million Tonnes of cargo during the period April to December, 2017 in comparison with 481.87 Million Tonnes handled in the same period in 2016.

The port of Rotterdamis the largest port and the largest container shipping hub in Europe, The number of containers handled in this port continues to grow. In the first nine months of 2017, the throughput of containers increased by 10.1 percent compared to the corresponding period in 2016, to a total of 10.2 million units (TEU).In the first month of this year, port of Rotterdam announced that it has teamed up with tech giant for digitalization initiative to create a ‘connected, smart’ port.Following the gathering data and analyzing by IBM’s cloud-based IoT technologies, the port of Rotterdam will be able to utilize the information to make key and major decisions for determining the best times for ships to dock, load and unload.

“Smart ports are the only ports that will survive,” argues Olaf Merk, Administrator for Ports and Shipping at the ITF of the OECD.It is necessary to mention that the effectiveness and usefulness of the smart port environment may lie in the technology and smart practices’ ability to be able to work together to effectively share information, both for the benefit of ports and for its customers.Antwerp port as another European large port hit record freight volumes for the fifth consecutive year in 2017, handling 223.61m tonnes of freight, 4% higher than the year before. The gains were driven by remarkable performances in all sectors except dry bulk and the roro segment, the port authority said.Practically all sectors turned in an excellent performance: The container volume expanded in tonnage by 4.3% (123 million tonnes), liquid bulk such as oil derivatives by 5.7% (73.1 million tonnes), and conventional breakbulk such as steel by 4.8% (10.3 million tonnes), while ro/ro completed the growth list with 10.5% (5.1 million tonnes).

Only dry bulk such as coal and ores lagged behind in the tables, finishing the year with a drop of 3.7% (12.2 million tonnes).General cargo moving through Abu Dhabi’s commercial ports increased by 37 percent in the last year, according to a statement released by Abu Dhabi Ports Company (ADPC).In addition, Maqta Gateway, Abu Dhabi Ports’ digital platform which aims to digitalize trade and streamline the exchange of information, was officially launched in Abu Dhabi. Operator Abu Dhabi Ports intend to boost capacity and plans to expand ports network are moving ahead. These measures should pave the way for Abu Dhabi to witness future increases in cargo traffic, especially with the recent rebound in commodity prices and global trade.The port of Hamburg is Germany’s largest port and offers more than 155,000 job opportunities in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. The port is also considered as an important industrial base, and with added value totalling 21.8 billion euros.In the first half of 2017, the port of Hamburg generally managed to prove itself in a difficult environment, producing a stable and firm result in comparison with the other German ports in the North Range,’ said Axel Mattern, Joint CEO of Port of Hamburg Marketing. For the whole of 2017, the port of Hamburg handled container throughput of around 8.9 million TEU. International Monetary fund (IMF) has predicted that global growth for 2018 and 2019 will experience an upward trend by 0.2 percentage point to 3.9 percent, the fastest pace since 2011. Thanks to an increase in the economic growth, it is prognosticated that in this year, we will be witnessing a grow in port throughput generally.