Container throughput at 250 ports around the world grew by an estimated 6.7% in the first half of 2017, according to a survey by Alphaliner.
The container shipping analyst said it expected global throughput growth to reach a six-year high of 6% year on year.
It also found that the Malaysian ports of Klang and Tanjung Pelepas were the only two ports in the top 20 to experience a drop in volumes.
Port Klang dropped 3.1% to 6.3 million TEU and Tanjung Pelepas fell 4% to 4.1 million TEU.
South Asia reported the highest rate of throughput growth in the first half with 9.3%.
Alphaliner also found that the world’s busiest container port, Shanghai, saw a 10% increase in throughput for the first six months of 2017, almost reaching 19.6 million TEU.
Singapore was up 6.4 percent to 16.1 million TEU with Shenzhen third at 11.8 million TEU.
Altogether, the 250 ports in Alphaliner’s survey have a combined annual throughput of more than 550 million TEU.
Total volume growth in the second quarter was 7.4%, ahead of the 5.9% recorded in the first quarter of this year.
Alphaliner stated that it expected the momentum to continue in the second half, “with the latest figures for July also showing very strong figures”.
Alphaliner's report and forecast mirrors Drewry’s upgraded outlook for the rest of 2017.
The global shipping consultancy’s port statistics from a sample of almost 150 sites around the world indicates that container handling grew by 6.6% in the first six months of 2017.
In its Container Insight Weekly, Drewry said it had “little doubt” that the final-year figure will be an improvement on the past two years, resulting 2017 being the fastest growing year since 2011.
