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Ports are the multipurpose regions maintained for secure, safer and reliable voyages of ships. A place or location at sea coast which is mainly made available for the docking purpose of a ship or for transferring people or cargo is termed as a port.

There are a large number of ports constructed and operational throughout the world to serve excellent waterway transportation. Ports can be ranked in world ranking on many criteria such as Cargo volume, Container size, etc.

The handling capacity of ports is measured in terms of TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units). Based on this unit of calculation, we have rated 10 ship ports as the biggest ports in the world.

Incidentally, a majority of these rated marine ports come under the Asian continent and on further narrowing of this statistic, mostly emerge from a single country – China.

It is to note that the list of the largest ports in the world is subject to constant alteration. This is mainly because of the development taking place in each and every country across the globe, with respect to marine cargo transportation and commercial networking.

Below are the top ten biggest ports as per the cargo volume throughout the world.

1. Port of Shanghai, Shanghai China

Having a total of five working areas, the port of Shanghai became the biggest port in the world, surpassing the Port of Singapore. It is located in Shanghai, China. That year alone, around 29 million TEUs were handled by the port of Shanghai, which has both – a sea as well as a river port. The port of Shanghai is a source of great economic activity in the Yangtze River area which has helped further the economic status of regions like Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Henan.

It has a capacity of handling cargo of about 744 million tonnes, which allows efficient management of 32.5 million containers of dimension equal to standard TEUs of containers simultaneously.

It is stretched at an area of 3,619 km² at the delta or convergence of Yangtze River and the port is owned by International Port Group in Shanghai (SIPG).

The port involves three most important container port areas within it located at Wusongkou, Waigaoqiao and at Yangshan with a total of 125 berths. The stretch of the quay totals to approximately twenty kilometres.

One-fourth of International trade from china is carried out from this port and on an average, about 2,000 of container ships are served by this port on a monthly basis.

2. Port of Singapore, Singapore

Once rated as the world’s largest port, the port of Singapore has slipped a couple of places and is now ranked second in the same category. From the Singaporean economic perspective, the port of Singapore plays a very important role as it caters to the re-export market on a mammoth scale.

The Singapore port is connected to over 600 ports spread around more than 100 countries. In terms of its handling, the ship port handles a fifth of the global cargo containers and is responsible for the transit of nearly 50% of the global crude oil supply.

The cargo handling capacity of the Port of Singapore is about 537.6 million tonnes. Annually on a total, about 140000 vessels are received by this port.

PSA Singapore with joint collaboration with Jurong port manages the port as well as various port terminals.

The locations of major port terminals of Port of Singapore are at Pasir Panjang, Tanjong Pagar, Sembawang. Keppel, Jurong and Brani. It is house to about two hundred four quay cranes and plenty of gantry cranes.

Currently, this terminal is under development and projected to be stretched out to 15 more berths and become operational in the near future.

3. Port of Tianjin, Tianjin China

The Tianjin port in China is ranked third in the list of biggest ports in the world. The Tianjin port is the third-largest port in China and the single-largest port in the Northern part of the country.

With the latest development in shipping industries, the number of cargo increases in the aggregate to an average of 5.3% and containers increases by 6.2%.

The cargo handling capacity of this port is such that it can handle cargo of about 476 million tonnes at a time, with a low value of a number of standard TEUs dimension containers of 12.3 million containers can be transported.

This port, operated by Tianjin Port Group of companies, is constructed at outlet of a North China river named Haihe River with a combined area of land and water of 131 km² and 336 km² respectively to serve as an interconnector between 500 ports of about 189 countries. On an aggregate, this Chinese port features 159 interconnected berths to form an excellent port network.

4. Port of Guangzhou Guangzhou, China

The largest port in Southern China, the Guangzhou port enjoys connectivity with more than 300 ports in almost 100 countries. The port forms the mainstay for the industrial belt found in the Guangxi, Yunnan, Hunan and Jiangxi regions. The port of Huangpu also forms a part of the Guangzhou port.

There is a little difference between the capacity of cargo handling of Port of Tianjin and Port of Guangzhou. The port of Guangzhou can handle cargo of even more than 460 million tonnes, this cargo handling capacity ranks it at number four in the top-ranking order.

In its beginning stage in 1999, this port was constructed in between the delta of Perl River.

In its initial stage, it was made to handle only a hundred million tons of cargo but this capacity experience growth and expansion so that the total cargo handling capacity reaches to the present capacity of cargo of about 460 million tonnes which more than four times the capacity of 100 million tonnes in 1999. This expansion in port capacity was an invitation to more trade from these ports and increased cargo traffic.

The four key areas of this port which are the busiest port location are namely: Downtown Port, Xinsha Port, Huangpu Port and Nansha Port Area. If the top order of ports is set on the basis of their loading and discharging especially for coal then this port in China tops the queue.

5. Port of Ningbo, Ningbo-Zhoushan, China

Formed as a collaborative venture between the Ningbo port and the Zhoushan port in the year 2006, the Ningbo-Zhoushan port is the second-largest marine port in the world.

Catering to three rivers – the Yangtze, the Yong and the Qaintang, the port expected a huge boost because of construction of a new terminal.

The Port of Ningbo, Zhejiang, with a handling capacity of more than 453 million tonnes of cargo is the next in the order of biggest ports around the globe with 15.6 million TEUs value.

The main port areas of this port are port areas of Beilun, Ningbo, Zhenhai, Chaunshan and Daxie and this port is operated by Ningbo Port Group. It comprises of 309 berths which interconnect a huge number of ports (about 600 ports in all) among 100 countries.

The recent merging of this port and the Port of Zhoushan resulted in enhancement of combined TEU capacity of the two ports which reached a value of 16.83 million TEUs.

6. Port of Rotterdam Rotterdam, The Netherlands

The Port of Rotterdam bears two titles first of the largest port of Europe and a second one of the sixth biggest port in the world.

It safely handles 441.5 million tonnes of cargo. The approximate stretch of this port figures as 12426 hectares to a 42 kilometres length. This port has an industrial complex within its environs.

PoRA the outstanding port authority of Rotterdam, owns, manages and operates this port.

Port of Rotterdam is the deepest port in north-western Europe and allows deep docking of ships. The regional government is carrying out a development programme for this port which approximately doubles its cargo handling capacity.

The European port served as the largest port in the world for 42-years between 1962 and 2004 before it was surpassed by Singapore and Shanghai. The Rotterdam port is the largest port in the whole of Europe.

7. Port of Suzhou

After reaching cargo handling capacity of 428 million tonnes, the Port of Suzhou became the seventh biggest port throughout the world. This port also has high ranking order when ports are ranked as per their business and this port is placed in categories of busiest inland river ports around the globe.

Suzhou Municipal Government owns and manages the port functionalities. It is constructed on Yangtze River at its lower reach with major port areas namely Changshu, Zhangjiagang and Taicang ports.

These port areas comprise of 224 berths in all and transact with more than hundreds of national as well as international shipping routes. This port is employed mainly for the transportation of various construction materials and coal. Suzhou Harbour Administration Department manages all the activities over the port.

8. Port of Qingdao Qingdao, China

The World’s largest iron ore port or “the Port of Qingdao” was established at the entrance head of Bay of Jiaozhou of Shadong Peninsula and ordered at the eighth position in world’s biggest ports ranking as per cargo capacity.

This port is managed by a state port group named Qingdao City Port Group and is self-sufficient in handling cargo of about 400 million tonnes or even more. It not only holds the rank of the eighth biggest port but also the largest Chinese port for crude oil transportation.

This port was developed by merging three ports namely oil port of Huangdao, Qingdao Old Port and the new port at Qianwan. This port interconnects about 130 countries around the globe through a network of about 450 ports. This is the only port which is furnished well with all high-tech facility as well as well-established Industrial zone in its locality.

9. Port of Dalian, China

In the order of top ten biggest ports of the world, the ninth position is secured by the port in Liaoning province of China, called the Port of Dalian, handling more than 303 million tonnes of cargo.

Dalian Port Company owns this port as well as responsible for all the concerned port activities. There are about eighty berths and seven significant areas of Dalian Port are Daliangang, Ganjinzi, Dalianwan, Nianyuwan, Xianglujiao, Dayaowan, Heizuizi and Si’ergou which connects more than ninety-nine shipping lines around the globe.

It is moreover a regional port and responsible for almost all the regional transportation in the vicinity.

10. Port of Busan Busan (South Korea)

The Port of Busan, also known as Pusan, doubles as South Korea’s largest port and its second-largest city. The 10th biggest port in the world, the port of Busan is situated at the Naktong River and forms a major commercial getaway between the Pacific Ocean and the countries belonging to Eurasia.

Naktong River Delta is where the Port of Busan is located. The handling capacity of this port is about 298 million tonnes of cargo.

Busan port authority manages, operates and is responsible for the proper functioning of this port. Port of Gamcheon and Dadaepo along with South and North ports are the key ports which the Busan Port comprises of.

It is a major port of South Korea as a major portion of the country’s fishery production, export of bulk freights and container freights is catered by this port alone. The catchment area over which this port is stretched is figured out to be 840,000 m² and can handle 169 vessels at the simultaneously.

On a concluding note, it is not wrong to say that China tops in Port development and management as there are seven Chinese ports in the list of top ten biggest ports throughout the world as per their respective cargo holding capacities.

Chinese Port of Shanghai topped the list due to its highest cargo carrying capacity among all the ports developed till date. This ranking of the ports is made on the basis of container handling capacities in million tonnes.

These ports have cargo handling capacity varying from cargoes of 298 million tonnes to 744 million tons. This is one basis for ranking the world’s top ten ports whereas they can also be ranked on the basis of other standards such as standard cargo dimensions in TEUs.

The ranking of ports as per their respective TEUs capacity is:

Shanghai port at Yangtze River (China) Singapore Port at Malacca Strait (China) Shenzhen Port at Perl River Delta (China) Hong Kong SAR at Perl River Delta (China) Ningbo – Zhoushan Port in Zhejiang (China) Port of Busan in Korean Strait (South Korea) Port of Qingdao in Yellow Sea (China) Guangzhou port at Perl River Delta (China) Jebel Ali Port in Arab Penisula (United Arab Emirates) Tianjin Port in Yellow Sea (China)

Thus, also in the ranking of ports according to the number of units of standard dimension containers transported through ports, China dominates the list.

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