Ningbo-Zhoushan Overtakes Singapore as No. 2 Container Port

China's Ningbo-Zhoushan Port has overtaken Singapore to become the world's second largest container port by throughput in 2026. The development represents a landmark shift in global port rankings, with Ningbo-Zhoushan displacing Singapore — which had held the second position globally for more than a decade, trailing only the Port of Shanghai — as the port continues its rapid capacity expansion and throughput growth.

In 2025, Ningbo-Zhoushan port achieved a total cargo throughput exceeding 1.4 billion tons, maintaining its position as the world's largest port by overall cargo volume for 17 consecutive years. Its annual container throughput surpassed 40 million TEUs for the first time in 2025, and by 2026 that figure had grown further. The port is served by more than 309 container shipping routes, connecting over 700 ports in more than 200 countries and regions. Its connectivity index ranked second globally as of the end of 2025.

Ningbo-Zhoushan's rise has been underpinned by sustained infrastructure investment and the full operationalisation of its two 10-million-class container terminals at Chuanshan and Meishan in 2025, alongside the world's only Shulanghu ore transshipment terminal, which can simultaneously berth and unload two 400,000-ton vessels. The port's sea-rail intermodal transportation also achieved double-digit growth, with over 1.8 million TEU of intermodal throughput in 2024. The port's overseas logistics service network — including overseas warehouses in Germany and Dubai and offices in Singapore and Japan — continues to expand its global footprint.

The shift in rankings reflects wider structural trends in container shipping: China's deliberate policy of concentrating traffic at a smaller number of large hub ports, growing manufacturing activity in Zhejiang Province and broader eastern China, and the diversion of Transpacific and Asia-Europe cargo volumes driven by geopolitical and weather-related disruptions at competing ports. Singapore, which remains one of the world's most important transshipment hubs and the top-ranked global shipping centre in the 2026 Xinhua Baltic ISCDI, is simultaneously expanding its Tuas terminal, targeting a capacity of 65 million TEUs by 2040.