Economy - Trade

The 25 Largest Container Ports, 2000

Units: Capacity in millions of deadweight tons

Units: Selection of ports was based on the total number of calls to that port by all vessel types. Of this set of ports, rankings were then determined by the average container vessel size. Data include oceangoing vessels of 1,000 gross tons and above. Capacity = dwt multiplied by calls. Port geography in this table is defined by Lloyd's Maritime Information Services, and differs from that in tables 10 and 11 where "U.S. ports" are based on U.S. Customs designations.

Source: U.S. Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration; based on Lloyd's Maritime Information Services, Vessel Movements, available at http://www.marad.dot.gov/Marad_Statistics/PortCalls_World.htm, as of Mar. 28, 2002.

These data from the US Department of Transportation indicate that China, Europe and the USA have all container port capacity that ranks among the 25 leading countries.

Surprisingly, Shanghai's container port is already the 20th largest port worldwide. Of course, much of China's foreign trade is going through Hong Kong.