Shanghai Overtakes Singapore As World’s Busiest Port

CONTAINER traffic through ports in Singapore increased 9.9 per cent last year as recovering economies ignited global trade. The wharves moved 28.43 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of standard-sized container boxes, according to the country’s Maritime and Port Authority today. But Singapore, which has been the world’s busiest container port since 2005, has lost its crown to Shanghai.

Reports from China said the Chinese city had handled 29.05 million TEUs, which works out to about 620,000 TEUs more than Singapore last year. The economic recovery and the boost from the World Expo helped Shanghai’s container throughput, officials said.

Shanghai had already surpassed Singapore in monthly container traffic in April last year and in cumulated traffic by July.