Container volume increased with 1,5% at Chinese ports

Despite COVID-19, container traffic handled at Chinese seaports rose 1.5% in 2020 to 234.3M TEU. This was shown by the data released by China’s Ministry of Transport (MoT).

An additional 30M TEU was processed by river ports. Ports that saw the most growth were Qinzhou (+30.8%), Rizhao (+8%), Yantai (+6.5%) and Tianjin (+6.1%). Not all ports saw an increase. Dalian saw a decrease, with its box traffic sliding by almost 42% in 2020 to just 5.1M TEU. Also Donguan saw a 7% decline in volumes.

The largest container port in China remains Shanghai. It is also the largest container port in the world with 43.5M TEU. A good runner-up in China is the neighbouring Ningbo-Zhoushan. Ningbo-Zhoushan saw an increase in traffic of 4.4% from 27.5M in 2019 to 28.7M TEU handled in 2020.

It looks like 2021 will be another record for China’s container ports. This January saw the country’s box volumes rise more than 13% to 23.7M TEU.