What’s inside?
Welcome to the first post of what will become Windward’s monthly analysis of ports worldwide! Using the proprietary data generated from our artificial intelligence-based solutions, we will bring you statistics, insights and trends from ports to keep you informed and help you plan for the future.
Asian ports continue to dominate the top ten ports list in June 2022, which is ranked based on the total number of port calls made by container vessels within a given month (the more port calls, the higher the ranking).
Kaohsiung City, Taiwan was the sole new entry into the top 10 this month, after ranking 11th in May. Rotterdam, the Netherlands is the only non-Asian port in the top 10 and actually the top 20, too.
The next non-Asian port on the list is Antwerp, Belgium at 21st place, down seven spots compared to last month, which could be explained by the congestion that built up there. We covered the topic of congestion in Europe’s top ports in a recent blog post, written by Lars Jensen (CEO & Partner at Vespucci Maritime and global supply chain expert) and based on Windward’s data. From that analysis, it seemed that Antwerp was on its way toward normalization. However, the port saw an average call length of 30.6 hours for container vessels in June, an increase of 9.1% from May, and 40% more than the average for the top 10 ports in June.
Monthly Throughput
Container vessels that berthed in Chinese ports during June carried a combined twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) capacity of up to 18.7 million. For comparison, vessels’ max capacity was 5.9 million TEUs in U.S. ports during that period. This means that for every three containers that passed through ports in China, only one potentially passed through a port in the United States. When compared with the global number, we find that one in every five (21.4%) containers that passed through a port somewhere in the world potentially passed through a Chinese port.
Hamburg, Germany
The Port of Hamburg experienced the sharpest drop among the top 100 ports, slipping nine places from where it stood in May, to 33rd. Hamburg was also covered in Lars’ analysis of the top ports in Europe, and it already looked like the port was going towards worsening congestion. The June numbers confirmed this. The average port call length in Hamburg was 53.3 hours per container vessel, an increase of 34% from the previous month. That’s also nearly twice as long as the global average, and 2.5 times the length of port calls for the top 10 ports.
This situation likely contributed to its ability to handle only 240 port calls, a 19.5% drop from the number of port calls in May.
Gioia Tauro, Italy
The port of Gioia Tauro is the most improved in the top 100, dropping the average length of port calls by 18.7% compared to May, at 34.8 hours per container vessel. That is still 46.8% more than the global average and 59% more than the top 10, but a trend in the right direction.
Consequently, the port was able to increase its number of port calls by 5.1% compared to May, improving its ranking by 4 spots, to 74th.
U.S. East Coast Congestion Building?
New York’s average port call length for container vessels rose from 42.6 hours in May to 45.2 hours in June, more than twice the average for the top 10 ports. In the Southeast, Port Everglades, Florida, increased its port call length by 19.5% compared to May, bringing its average to 20 hours per container vessel.
At the same time, on the U.S. West Coast, Oakland decreased its average port call length by 14.5% month over month (MoM). Long Beach still stood at an exceptionally high 84 hours, which is more than 2.5 times longer than the global average and is a likely explanation as to why the port handled only 75 container vessel port calls.
Port of the Month
In our “Port of the Month” segment, we offer our insights on a port that had an important operational improvement, an irregular increase in activity, or other notable highlights.
The port of Ambarli in Turkey, improved its port call length in June by 11.3% since the previous month, to 16 hours on average. With a total vessel TEU capacity of 432k passing through the port during the month, this represents an efficiency of 8 hours per 1,000 TEU capacity, which is 35% less on average than the top 100 ports.
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