Slow growth for major box ports in 2022

Alphaliner’s recent report, released today (29 March), stated that volumes at the 30 busiest ports rose by less than 1% year-on-year, to 454 million TEU in 2022.

Gains were driven almost entirely by China and, to a lesser extent, the Middle East.

Despite intermittent Covid-19 restrictions, volumes at China’s top 10 ports rose 4.1% to a new record of 222 million TEU during the year, although the result marked a slower growth than the previous year (2021: 6.2%). A strong showing by Tanger Med (+5.6% year-on-year to 7.6 million TEU) also added some 423,000 TEU in volumes, while Dubai throughput remained firm at 13.9 million TEU, a 1.6% increase in 2021.

However, the remaining Asian ports ranked in the top 30 - Singapore, Busan, Port Klang, Tanjung Pelepas, Kaohsiung and Jakarta - all logged volume decreases, ranging from 0.5% to 6.5%.

In the United States, the ascendant east coast ports of New York/New Jersey and Savannah continued their growth, reporting volume increases of 5.3% and 4.7% respectively, while Los Angeles throughput fell 5.3%, as the port lost its position as the busiest US container port. New York/New Jersey has outperformed Los Angeles in five of the last eight months.

Europe’s three busiest ports Rotterdam, Antwerp-Bruges and Hamburg, also ceded ground, with headline volumes falling by 5.8%, 5.5% and 5.4% respectively, bringing throughput below 2019 levels.

Source: Container News