The week in charts: How Asia rewrote the container port rankings in the 21st century | Cosco signs orders for 18 new containerships
- China’s rise transformed the container port rankings, driving an unprecedented shift of cargo and capacity towards Asia
- Cosco Shipping Holdings’ latest boxship orders include a dozen megamax vessels powered by LNG dual-fuel engines
- At least 67 vessels have been waiting off Sulina for two days or more, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence data
Lloyd’s List’s weekly showing of the data and figures behind our news, analysis and markets coverage
A QUARTER of the way into the 21st century, the container port rankings offer a striking snapshot of how profoundly global trade has changed. Few at the turn of the millennium would have predicted the scale of the transformation that followed, reported deputy editor Linton Nightingale.
When Lloyd’s List’s annual tally of the world’s largest container ports entered the new century, Hong Kong topped the table, Shanghai ranked sixth with just 5.6m teu and Ningbo-Zhoushan was little more than a footnote in the global hierarchy.
Container shipping was entering an era of accelerating globalisation, China’s manufacturing boom was only beginning to gather momentum and supply chains were becoming increasingly integrated across continents. By 2025, Shanghai had grown tenfold to 55m teu, Ningbo-Zhoushan had become the world’s third largest port and China occupied five of the top eight positions in the rankings. Throughput across the top 20 ports quadrupled from 109m teu to more than 440m teu over the period.
Cosco signs orders for 18 new containerships in near $3bn deal
Cosco Shipping Holdings has confirmed contracts for 18 new containerships worth almost $3bn, including 12 megamax-class vessels, reported markets editor Rob Willmington.
The Shanghai- and Hong Kong-listed company said its wholly owned subsidiary Cosco Assets has signed firm shipbuilding contracts with Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding for the dozen liquefied natural gas dual-fuel vessels, of 21,700 teu capacities.
They are priced at around $224m each with deliveries scheduled between the third quarter of 2028 and the first quarter of 2030.
Black Sea security fears drive vessel queue at Sulina as crews seek shelter from escalating attacks
As the security situation in the Black Sea deteriorates, more vessels are opting to wait off Romania’s Sulina anchorage rather than remain off Ukrainian ports, reducing their exposure to Russian attacks while cargoes and berths become available, wrote senior reporter Ece Göksedef.
Lloyd’s List Intelligence data shows at least 67 vessels have been waiting off Sulina for two days or more. Of these, 63 are general cargoships, alongside two bulk carriers and two tankers.
Among them is the 13,586 dwt Panama-flagged chemical tanker Mavka (IMO: 9284647), which has been at anchor since August 21 and has a history of calling at Ukrainian ports.
Russia’s Black Sea grain exports plunge as attacks disrupt shipping
Russia’s grain exports through the Black Sea have fallen to their lowest levels in 15 years as escalating attacks on shipping and tighter restrictions in the Sea of Azov disrupt trade, wrote senior reporter Ece Göksedef.
Lloyd’s List Intelligence data shows bulk carrier departures from Russian Black Sea grain ports to foreign destinations fell 65% year on year in July 2026.
The number of traceable departures from grain terminals in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov dropped from 80 in July 2025 to 28 in July 2026. In tonnage terms, exports fell from 3.6m dwt to just 910,378 dwt, down 19% from June.
The more convoluted crude routes become, the higher VLCC rates go
The financial world is intently focused on how much crude is really flowing through the Strait of Hormuz: is it as high as the Trump administration claims or the more subdued level implied by ship-tracking data, asked senior maritime reporter Greg Miller.
VLCC spot rates and fixtures show that Middle East Gulf cargo is indeed flowing, but the market is far from normalising: transit risk premiums remain very steep and crude is taking very inefficient paths to Asia.
“The Hormuz crisis is making each barrel more tanker-intensive, leaving the market tighter than before the conflict,” wrote Clarksons Securities on Monday.
