- 70 containers per crane per hour, that’s how Standardized shipping container improved port efficiency.
- China has top 10 ports in the world, as production migrated to countries with cheaper production costs.
- Asian countries are dominating with Singapore moving 34 million 20-foot containers in 2017.
- Yearly growth seen in the container traffic after the brief drop of 2009.
Loading and unloading ships was a complicated affair in the past which involved pallets, crates and winches but the scenario has changed over years. The labour intensive extensive process which made many goods unworthy of shipping overseas have changed due to the Globalization of Containers, says an article published in the Visual Capitalist.
What role did shipping containers play?
In the 1970s, the standardized shipping container solved this problem on a wide scale and turned the world economy on its head. This standardization drove the cost of shipping down as the efficiency of ports skyrocketed. Modern ports could now move upwards of 70 containers per crane per hour.
How did this impact container traffic?
With the barrier of shipping costs effectively removed, production began to migrate to countries with cheaper production costs. China is at the center of this new paradigm: nearly one-third of all global containers move through Chinese ports, and seven of the top 10 ports in the world are all located in China.
Which countries are moving the most units?
Here are the top 10 countries with the most 20-foot containers passing through their ports:
| Rank | Country | 20-Foot Container Count (2017) |
| 1 | China (inc. H.K.) | 234,489,920 |
| 2 | United States | 51,425,464 |
| 3 | Singapore | 33,600,000 |
| 4 | South Korea | 27,427,000 |
| 5 | Malaysia | 24,719,000 |
| 6 | Japan | 21,904,444 |
| 7 | U.A.E. | 21,280,900 |
| 8 | Germany | 19,447,600 |
| 9 | Spain | 17,065,000 |
| 10 | Netherlands | 13,951,000 |
Who is dominating the shipping traffic?
Asian countries dominate shipping container traffic, taking up four of the top five spots. Singapore, with a population of just 5.4 million, moved nearly 34 million 20-foot containers in 2017. That’s more than Italy, France, Russia, Sweden, and the U.K. combined.
The United States is still the number two country in the world in terms of the number of containers handled. Two massive ports in Los Angeles control over a quarter of the North American market share, and the Port of New York & New Jersey is the largest on the Eastern Seaboard.
Except for a brief slip in 2009, the number of containers moving through ports has increased every year this millennium so far.
In spite of the recent volley of tariff actions, there appears to be smooth sailing ahead for the growth of containerized shipping.
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Source: Visual Capitalist
