Insight: The Top 5 Ports in the World for Efficiency
The Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) from the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence was released in early June 2023, meaning we have fresh ratings for the world's leading ports.
Below are the names that make the top ten with an insight into each pointing to why it's made the grade.
The CPPI is created to "...help identify opportunities to improve a terminal or a port that will ultimately benefit all public and private stakeholders," according to the World Bank.
Because of this the key grading used here in isn't so much size, but efficiency.
The Top 10
1. Yangshan Port
Yangshan Port sits in Hangzhou Bay south of Shanghai and is a key port in the Maritime Silk Road.
Connected to Shanghai's Pudong New Area by the Donghai Bridge and forming part of the Port of Shanghai, the islands of Greater and Lesser Yangshan are administered separately as part of Zhejiang's Shengsi County.
Built to allow the Port of Shanghai to grow despite shallow waters near the shore, it allows berths with depths of up to 15 metres (49 ft) to be built, and can handle today's largest containerships.
In 2015, the port handled 36.54 million TEUs, and by 2019, its throughput had increased to 43.35 million TEU.
2. Port of Salalah, Oman
The Port of Salalah is the largest port in Oman and has been in operation since 1998.
Situated in the Dhofar Governorate, on the Arabian Sea which is on the northern part of the Indian Ocean, it is centrally located at the crossroads of trade between Asia and Europe.
With over 2.5 billion consumers, it serves the markets of East Africa, the Red Sea, the Indian Subcontinent and the Arabian/Persian Gulf on its doorstep.
The port is also part of the Maritime Silk Road that runs from the Chinese coast via the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean, there to the Upper Adriatic region of Trieste with its rail connections to Central and Eastern Europe.
3. Khalifa Port, UAE
Khalifa Port is Abu Dhabi Ports' flagship deepwater port and one of the leading ports in the UAE.
The port acts as a gateway to Abu Dhabi and handles all of the emirate’s container traffic, after the transfer of container traffic from Zayed Port was completed in December 2012.
Khalifa Port has a Phase 1 capacity of 2.5 million TEUs and 12 million tonnes of general cargo a year and an expected capacity of 15 million TEUs and 35 million tonnes of general cargo by 2030.
4. Tanger-Med
Tanger-Med is a major Moroccan industrial port complex located 45 km northeast of Tangier and opposite of Tarifa, Spain (15 km north) on the Strait of Gibraltar, with handling capacities of 9 million containers.
As one of the largest industrial ports in the world, and the largest port in Africa, it has an industrial platform for 1,100 companies representing an annual export business volume in 2020 of almost US$1 billion.
5. Port of Cartagena, Colombia
Cartagena port is strategically well placed to capture sea traffic through the Panama Canal's transoceanic shipping lanes that connect the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean's sea traffic and other traffic around the Caribbean Sea.
The Port of Cartagena facilitates Colombia’s foreign trade and global connectivity, thereby fostering socio-economic development in the country.
Its productivity indicators are also often recognized as being among the highest in the world.
Places 6-10
The CPPI also gave positions 6 to 10 to the following ports, Tanjung Pelepas in Malaysia came in at sixth, while another Chinese port made the top 10 in the shape of the Port of Ningbo, which ranked seventh.
In at number eight was another Middle Eastern entry, Qatar's Hamad Port, with the Port of Guangzhou in China in ninth place, and Egypt’s Port Said in tenth place.
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