b'2American Journal ofTransportation ajot.comCommentary: AJOTsTOP 100 CONTAINER PORTS 2023top 100 container ports This years Top 100 Container Ports annual edi-tion again surveys the worlds largest box ports. While some of the results are as expectedShang-hai is still worlds largest container portthere are a number of up and coming ports that reflect new trends in the container trades.By George Lauriat, AJOTRankandFile:ThisSoutheast Asias largest port. yearsannualeditionofButwiththemega-terminal AJOTsTop100Containerof Tuas still in Phase 1 of four PortsA-Zholdsafewsur- phases,thenumbersofthis prises, but for the most partportareonlygoingtorise. reflectsindustrytrendsthatAnd when it comes to strate-havebeendecadesinthegic location, Singapore has it making.Itsurprisesnooneall with the Straits of Malacca that nine of the top ten in theand its position to the emerg-100 ports list are Asian. Oring North-South trade lanes. that China has seven ports inIt is hard to imagine the chaos the top ten, led by Shanghaithat would ensue in the worlds withathroughputofover(COMMENTARYcontin-47 million TEUs. Maybe theued on page 10) The South Korean container Port of Busan handled 23.5 million TEUs in 2022.onlysurpriseinShanghais numbers is that they havent becomethefirst50mil-lion TEUporttheCOVID lockdowns had something to dowiththatbut50million TEUs is coming. Of course, Chinasportsarenearlyall growing, and it is difficult to think that one country boasts six ports with a throughput of over 20 million TEUs. With only Hong Kong at 16.5 mil-lion TEUs continuing to slide downtheportranksa function of the expansion of nearbyportslikeShenzhen, (4) at over 30 million TEUs andGuangzhou(6)at24.6 million TEUs. AndNingbo-Zhoushan(3)handlingover 33 million TEUs has become a rival to Shanghaithe alter-native mega-port (if any port handling30millionTEUs canbecalledanalterna-tive)toShanghaissprawl-ing port system. IntermsoftheNorth Asiacargobasin,theonly non-Chinese port in the mix is the South Korean container portofBusan(7)handling 23.5 million TEUs. Historically, the Japanese portsofKobe(65),Tokyo (45)andYokohama(68) would have been at the top or near the top when it comes to North Asia. But as the rank-ings suggest that is no longer the case. In the 1990 edition of the Containerisation Interna- The Future Arrives Heretional (CI) Yearbook, Yoko-hama ranked 11 th , Tokyo 13 thand Kobe 3 rdand Shanghai wasnt to be found in the topThe Port of Long Beach is innovating by testing and deploying the latest technology20ports.Agreateconomic swing changed all that. new digital infrastructure to improve cargo tracking and electric yard equipment and Although 10 million TEUstrucks as we head to zero-emissions operations.backfromthetopslotisa large margin for a container port,[considerthatLos Angeles(16)largestportin theUnitedStatesfellbelow the 10 million TEU threshold in 2022] but it can be argued that even at number two, Sin-gaporeistheworldsmost importantport.Singapore with over 37 million TEUs is'