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Shanghai retains busiest container port crown

SINGAPORE — Shanghai retained its title as the world’s busiest container port for a fifth consecutive year after widening the gap with its closest rival, Singapore.

SINGAPORE — Shanghai retained its title as the world’s busiest container port for a fifth consecutive year after widening the gap with its closest rival, Singapore.

Singapore handled 33.9 million 20-foot containers last year, showed a Jan 16 statement posted on the website of the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore. Last month, Shanghai said it expects to process about 35.2 million boxes for 2014. A year before, the gap between the two ports was about 1 million boxes.

Shanghai, Shenzhen and other ports in China are dominating the global container-shipping market. The facility in Ningbo overtook South Korea’s Busan last year as the world’s fifth-busiest harbour. Seven of the world’s top 10 container ports in 2013 were in China, with Hong Kong coming in fourth.

Shipping companies are adding larger container ships to meet demand as economic growth helped consumers spend more money on clothes and food. Global trade last year probably grew 3.8 per cent, said the International Monetary Fund.

Global containerised trade reached 124 million boxes in the first 11 months of 2014, an increase of 4.3 per cent from 118.9 million a year ago, said Container Trade Statistics.

Geneva-based Mediterranean Shipping Company, the world’s second-largest container shipping firm, currently operates the biggest vessel, which can carry 19,224 boxes between Asia and Europe. Last year, China Shipping Container Lines launched a ship that could carry about 19,100 containers. BLOOMBERG

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