AJOT’s Top 100 Container Ports

Although geo-political shifts have yo-yoed container shipping movements and freight rates over the last two years, the number of TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) that were handled by the world’s largest ports in 2025 represented a solid year for container shipping business. However, there is a large, and getting larger, caveat buried in port figures — the dislocation of trade routes in the Middle East due to the ongoing conflict, both in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf has had a significant impact on container ports and shipping routes that is still continuing. If geo-political tensions remain a spanner in the global economic works through 2026, next year’s numbers may look considerably worse than 2025. Already containership operators are regularly ‘blanking’ sailings and smaller to mid-sized containers have thus far suffered that most, but that could change should the economics of 2026-27 dictate schedule cutbacks for the ocean carrier alliances. The silver lining that has in the past propped up TEU numbers, is the resilience of the US economy. But will it happen again is still difficult to ascertain as the first half of 2026 ends.

Asian Dominance: Shanghai, a Leader Among Leaders

However, looking at the 2025 port throughout numbers from a big-picture point of view, the mega-container ports are growing fast and so are the ships calling at the container terminals. It is remarkable that there are now 20 mega-container ports worldwide that have an annual throughput of over 10 million TEUs, beginning with Shanghai with an astounding throughput in 2025 of over 55 million TEUs. [See the “The 10 Million TEU Club” chart] Singapore in the 2^nd position posted over 44 million TEUs, while Ningbo-Zhoushan notched 43 million TEUs. Interestingly, back in 2022, Shanghai was the only 40 million TEU port in the world — and the TEU gap between Shanghai and Singapore was about 10 million TEUs and now it is about 11 million TEUs. And number three Ningbo-Zhoushan, is about 12 million TEUs behind Shanghai. Just in a way of comparison, the largest container port in the United States is the Port of Los Angeles, which posted a throughput of 10.24 million TEUs in 2025 — a number smaller than the gap between Shanghai and its two closest competitors.

And when it comes to the top ten mega-container ports it is all about Asia as nine of the ten container ports in the top are in Asia, with six of them located, like Shanghai and Ningbo-Zhoushan, in China. The first non-Asian port on the list is the UAE, Port of Jebel Ali ranked number nine in the world. And the first European port on the list is the hub container port, Rotterdam with a throughout of 14.2 million TEUs. Even in the group 11-to-20, six of the ports are located in Asia.

European Container Ports

European ports have been caught in the middle by a number of geo-political events, ranging from the conflict in the Middle East, US tariff policies and the de-risking from China movement. Nonetheless, while the container flows were erratic, overall volumes in 2025 remained in line with the previous two years.

The Port of Rotterdam (11th on the chart), located in the Netherlands, remains Europe’s “hub” port, posting 14.2 million TEUs in 2025 with around 55% of the TEU total related to China. But the Belgium dual port of Antwerp-Bruges (13th on the chart) isn’t far behind at 13.63 million TEUs and increasingly is becoming an important alternative hub for North Europe’s container business, despite industrial action and congestion issues in 2025. Interestingly, although China remains the top source of inbound TEUs, the port’s tonnage leader was the US, as imports of American sourced liquid and dry bulk freight led the way in the diverse dual port 2025.

Germany’s largest port is the Port of Hamburg. The port ranks 26^th and has long counted China as its leading trade partner in 2025 recording 2.3 million TEUs. It remained that way. The US with 510,000 TEUs was in the number two slot but business was off by 25.6%, as tariffs dampened demand.

However, India and the Indian Sub-Continent (ISC) region is rapidly rising as an emerging trade partner with over a 49% increase in 2025 to 290,000 TEUs. India’s neighboring Sri Lanka, also experienced a surge, increasing by over 22% to 172,000 TEUs. It is worth noting that the Port of Columbo, in Sri Lanka, posted a throughput of nearly 8.3 million TEUs in 2025, ranking 28^th and up from 6.9 million TEUs in 2023.

The Port of Valenica, ranked 38th, located on the Mediterranean Sea, is Spain’s largest port handling almost 5.7 million TEUs in 2025. Like many European ports, China was the top trading partner, with over 550,000 TEUs in import, followed by the US, Italy and Algeria.

The Port of Bremerhaven in Germany, had a throughput of 4.9 million TEUs ranking 41^st on the list. The largest trade partner in TEUs for the Port of Bremerhaven was China and the US was second. The US has a long-standing trans-Atlantic business with Bremer/Bremerhaven, and the connection is still an important link.

Like Valencia, the French port of Le Havre (Haropa) is also located on the Mediterranean Sea. Le Havre, ranked 65 on the list, had a throughput of 3.2 million TEUs in 2025 — and has for the most part annually posted around 3 million TEUs in recent years.

The Span of Mediterranean Container Ports

The throughputs for container ports in the Mediterranean and Middle East have been adversely impacted by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East along with other geo-pollical issues — however while the throughput numbers in 2026 have plummeted for some ports as they are more directly impacted —the volumes in 2025 were relatively strong.

As mentioned above the Spanish port of Valencia handled nearly 5.7 million TEUs while Barcelona ranked 56th and had a throughput of 3.7 million TEUs. Algeciras, (ranked 43rd) located on the Straits of Gibraltar, notched a throughput of 4.74 million TEUs in 2025. However, the most impressive throughput in was the North African hub port of Tanger Med located in Morocco at the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar which ranked 16th and handled over 11 million TEUs — up from around 7.6 million in 2022.

Italy’s transshipment hub the Port of Gioia Tauro also benefits from its Med location handling around 4.5 million TEUs in 2025 and with rail connections links the port to Northern Europe, Italy’s northern port of Genoa.

The quintessential Mediterranean hub port is the island of Malta’s Marsaxlokk container port. In 2025 the port handled nearly 2.9 million TEUs and ranked 70^th in the world. Piraeus, another Med hub port ranked 52 had a throughput of nearly 4 million TEUs in ’25, but that is significantly off its peak of 4.94 million TEUs in 2022 and nearly 4.8 million in 2024. Egypt’s Port of Said is another of the Mediterranean Sea’s hub ports, as it lies at the Med’s entrance to the Suez Canal. Ranking 39th in the list the port handled an impressive 5.57 million TEUs in 2025. As with all the Middle Eastern ports the geo-politics have influenced trade flows, but the Port of Said is also a key entrepôt for Egypt itself as well as a hub for Suez Canal traffic.

Container Ports in North America

The southern California ports, the Port of Los Angeles, ranked 18th with 10.24 million TEUs and the Port of Long Beach, ranked 21st handling 9.88 million TEUs in 2025, are the largest container ports in the Americas. Although the US Atlantic ports of the Port of New York/New Jersey ranked 23rd with a throughput of nearly 8.9 million TEUs and the Port of Savannah handling 5.7 million TEUs sitting in the 37th slot, are benefiting from a slow but steady shifting of volumes to the US East Coast, especially in the growing US Southeast. The US Gulf ports are also experiencing a surge, and the Port of Houston at 48th seems to just keep on growing, handling 4.3 million TEUs in 2025.

The Port of Virginia (Norfolk) ranked at 64th with a throughput of nearly 3.24 million TEUs and the Northwest Seaport Alliance (ports of Seattle and Tacoma) ranked at 66 with over 3.15 million TEUs both have regularly eclipsed 3 million TEUs.

Canada’s two largest container ports each serve a different coast. The Port of Vancouver, ranked 55th handling 3.78 million TEUs in 2025, serves Canada’s Pacific coast and has consistently grown and might well climb a notch or two over the next few years. And located 990 miles up the Saint Lawrence River is the Port of Montreal in the 89th slot, with a throughput of almost 1.52 million TEUs in 2025. The port has been operating near capacity and has a terminal in the works with DP World that is expected to go into operation by 2030 and could add as much as 1.15 million TEUs to the overall capacity.

Mexico also has three key container ports, two located on the Pacific Coast and one in the Gulf of Mexico. The Port of Manzanillo, ranked 53rd handling 3.89 million TEUs and Lazaro Cardenas 80th in the ranking with a TEU throughput of 2.16 million TEUs. The Port of Veracruz, is located on the Gulf of Mexico and is ranked 95th with a throughput of almost 1.3 million TEUs. Mexico is expecting a big surge in container volumes and is working on plans to increase terminal handling capacity both in the ports and at inland terminals built around intermodal rail heads.

By virtue of the Panama Canal, Panama has two port clusters, one on the Atlantic and another on the Pacific that collectively rank in the top 100 container port listings. The Port of Colon on the Atlantic side ranks 36th and had a throughput of nearly 5.18 million TEUs in 2025. The Port of Balboa, on the Pacific side, ranked number 50 with 4.2 million TEUs in 2025. While there is much debate on how the long-term management of the various terminals will playout, what is indisputable is how important these two port clusters are to international trade, particularly for vessels destined for US gulf ports like Houston and Galveston and US East ports ranging from Florida’s ports up to the mega-hub of the Port of New York/New Jersey. In ways, the Panama Canal’s ports have been a barometer for the shipping business in North America. And these days, the question of how many TEUs flow through the Canal and ports of Panama is as big an interest in Washington as it is in Panama City.