Comment / Snapshot: Port volumes as muddy as hell

Preliminary port throughput data for the world’s largest 25 container ports has been published by Alphaliner this week.  

The headline is that 13 of the top 25 saw growth, and 12 saw box volumes shrink – we should be wary of extrapolating this to the wider port market however, as it is still unclear whether their gains are the result of market growth or more simply the result of smaller ports’ losses (check Dalian below). 

Some quay points 

Chinese ports consolidated their position in the top 10 – other than second-placed Singapore, South Korea’s Busan (which slipped ...