The Yangtze River Delta in China now hosts the world’s two busiest container ports, marking a significant shift in global maritime logistics. During the first half of this year, the Ningbo-Zhoushan Port in Zhejiang province surpassed the Port of Singapore to become the world’s second-largest container port by volume, according to data from French shipping analytics firm Alphaliner.
Ningbo-Zhoushan handled 22.9 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), edging past Singapore’s 22.74 million TEUs. Meanwhile, Shanghai remained the world’s busiest container port, with 28.7 million TEUs processed in the same period. These two Chinese ports are located less than 100 kilometers apart along the Yangtze River Delta, one of the country’s major manufacturing and export hubs.
Transportation analyst Qu Ke of CCB International in Hong Kong attributed the port’s strong performance to advances in operational efficiency driven by the adoption of smart technologies. Automated systems such as autonomous trucks, cranes, and automated loading and unloading have become increasingly common, improving safety and throughput. Qu also highlighted the robust supporting infrastructure, such as roads and railways, which facilitates seamless intermodal logistics feeding containers to these ports.
The rise of Ningbo-Zhoushan is linked to a strategic consolidation of facilities across Ningbo and Zhoushan, initiated during President Xi Jinping’s tenure as Zhejiang’s party secretary from 2002 to 2007. This restructuring transformed scattered docks into a unified port complex, enhancing operational capacity and competitiveness.
China’s broader export sector played a crucial role in this growth. Official customs figures indicate that total Chinese exports climbed 18.5 percent to $2.52 trillion in the first seven months of this year, generating a trade surplus of $687.3 billion. Exports from Ningbo specifically grew 8.3 percent to 1.27 trillion yuan (approximately HK$1.48 trillion), supported by steady demand from the United States—the port’s largest overseas market—and expanding shipments to Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia and Vietnam.
The Yangtze River Delta specializes in tech-intensive products, including electric vehicles, which are often shipped via roll-on/roll-off vessels directly from nearby factories to major consumer markets in Europe and Southeast Asia. Qu noted that this regional integration and efficient logistics network underpin the competitiveness of China’s export economy.
Factories in the region have operated at high capacity since the summer to meet demand ahead of the upcoming U.S. holiday season. Exporters have also sought to capitalize on improving U.S.-China trade relations. Ningbo-Zhoushan’s busiest shipping routes connect to major American ports such as Long Beach near Los Angeles and the Port of New York and New Jersey. Shanghai’s cargo primarily heads to the United States, followed by European ports including Rotterdam and Hamburg.
Looking ahead, Qu suggested that Shenzhen, located in the Pearl River Delta of Guangdong province, could potentially overtake Singapore in the coming years, given the region’s strong manufacturing and export capabilities.
Chinese ports dominate the global container port rankings, with six of the top ten busiest hubs located in the country. However, Hong Kong’s port fell to 14th place globally in the first half of the year, experiencing a 3.5 percent decline in container throughput compared to previous periods.