Port of Shanghai, China

The Port of Shanghai has been the world’s busiest port since 2010 when it overtook Singapore to gain the title.

Since then, it’s been charting quite an impressive growth journey.

In 2016, the port handled 37 million TEUs — a then-world record and the most managed by any port in a year. It went on to break its own record the following year, adding 3 million more TEUs to 40 million TEUs. Its record-setting path continued into 2018 when it crossed the 42 million barrier.

This is impressive even by China’s standards, as the Port of Shanghai is now just 3 million TEUs shy of the 45 million TEUs the port had initially set as a target for 2040.

The Port of Shanghai is also where the world’s largest automated container terminal, the Shanghai Yangshan Deep Water Port, is located. The terminal began operations in late 2017.




In 1842, Shanghai became a treaty port, thus developing into an international commercial city. By the early 20th century, it was the largest city and the largest port in East Asia. In 1949, with the Communist takeover in Shanghai, overseas trade was cut dramatically. The economic policy of the People's Republic had a crippling effect on Shanghai's infrastructure and capital development.




In 1991, the central government allowed Shanghai to initiate economic reform. Since then, the port has developed at a rapid pace. By 2005, the Yangshan deep-water port had been built on the Yangshan islands, a group of islands in Hangzhou Bay linked to Shanghai by the Donghai Bridge. This development allowed the port to overcome shallow water conditions in its current location and to rival another deep-water port, the nearby Ningbo-Zhoushan port.




The port is part of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road that runs from the Chinese coast to Singapore, towards the southern tip of India to Mombasa, from there through the Red Sea via the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean, there to the Upper Adriatic region to the northern Italian hub of Trieste with its connections to Central Europe and the North Sea.




The Port of Shanghai is a critically important transport hub for the Yangtze River region and the most important gateway for foreign trade. It serves the Yangtze economically developed hinterland of Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Henan provinces with its dense population, strong industrial base and developed agricultural sector.