The Japanese port of Yokohama has been crowned the world’s most efficient container facility in a new study by the World Bank and data firm IHS Markit.
Asian container ports are the world’s most efficient, dominating the top 50 according to the new global Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) representing the culmination of 10 years of research.
The report has ranked ports based on different metrics, making the efficiency ranking comparable worldwide by assessing and standardizing different vessel sizes and container movements per call.
The CCPI is based on total port hours per call, defined as the time elapsed from the time a vessel arrives at a port to its departure from the dock having completed its cargo exchange.
The higher or lower workload is accounted for by examining the underlying data within 10 different ranges of call size. Five different groups of vessel sizes are considered in the methodology, given the potential for greater fuel and emissions savings in larger vessels.
In Yokohama it takes only 1.1 minutes on average to load or unload a container
Key port performance metrics, such as minutes per container movement, show large discrepancies in overall port efficiency, with top performers such as Yokohama taking just 1.1 minutes on average to load or unload a container on a standard port call, while the average for equivalent workloads in African ports is more than three times as long at 3.6 minutes.
In second place, after Yokohama, is Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Port. Algeciras is the top-ranked port in Europe. Lazaro Cardenas is the top-ranked port in Latin America, and Halifax is the top-ranked port in North America. No port in sub-Saharan Africa appears among the world’s top 50 container ports. A total of 351 ports were rated in the global index.
The CPPI aims to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement that will benefit stakeholders from shipping lines to national governments and consumers.
“The development of efficient, high-quality container port infrastructure is a key factor in the success of export-led growth strategies in both developing and developed countries,” said Martin Humphreys, chief transport economist at the World Bank. “Efficient ports also ensure business continuity and improve the resilience of seaports as crucial nodes in the global logistics system.”
