Welcome to the latest edition of Lloyd’s List One Hundred Ports, tallying up the annual container throughput figures of the world’s elite port facilities.

Following a robust return in the previous year, top 100 volume growth softened slightly in 2018, from 6% to 4.8%. Yet it was certainly a figure not to be sniffed at.

Growth – although fragmented – was strong globally. Slowing economic growth in China did little to hinder throughput development, while Southeast Asia’s rise as a box trade powerhouse gathered pace.

However, all regions played a part in 2018’s success.

As with other years there was the usual spread of winners and losers in 2018, as ports continued to prosper at the expense of others, whether through carrier alliance wins or the opening of new facilities to absorb traffic from elsewhere.

We also lost four ports from the rankings this year, while welcoming the return of San Antonio, Abu Dhabi and Buenos Aires, in addition to Chinese debutant Jiaxing.