Jebel Ali Falls Out of the Top Ten as Hormuz Rewrites the Port Ranking

The ten largest container ports finished 2025 in the same order as a year earlier, but the 2026 returns underneath that ranking describe a redistribution of a different kind from the one recorded a year ago.

The 2026 World's Top Container Ports ranking covers 125 ports on their 2025 throughput. Shanghai led on 55.1m teu, up 6.9%, followed by Singapore on 44.7m, up 8.6%, Ningbo-Zhoushan on 43.9m, up 11.6%, Shenzhen on 35.4m, Qingdao on 32.9m, Guangzhou on 27.7m, Busan on 24.9m, Tianjin on 24.0m, Jebel Ali on 15.6m and Port Klang on 15.1m. Across all 125 ports the median gain was 5.1% and the ranked total grew 6.0%.

Partial-year data now covers 73 of the 125 ports, or 76% of the ranked set's 2025 volume, most reporting through June or July. Weighted by volume those returns show growth of 2.5% year on year, or 4.1% with one Gulf port excluded. That exclusion is the story.

Jebel Ali handled 3.1m teu in the first half of 2026, 59.5% fewer than in the same period of 2025, with the second quarter down 90.1%, in DP World's interim results filed on 13 August. Applied to its 2025 volume, that rate takes the port from ninth place to somewhere between 30th and 50th on an annualised basis. The distinction from the previous edition matters: when the Gemini Cooperation launched in February 2025 it lifted Rotterdam's North America traffic by double digits and moved its South American transhipment elsewhere within months, but those were network decisions, reversible on commercial terms. A ship rounding the Cape of Good Hope can avoid the Red Sea; no routing reaches Jebel Ali without transiting the Strait of Hormuz, and volumes through the waterway remain down more than 90% as set out in the six-month picture.

The Chinese members of the top ten are holding their 2025 pace. Ningbo-Zhoushan grew 8.4% in January to July, Qingdao 7.0%, Shenzhen 6.1%, Tianjin 5.5% and Guangzhou 2.5%. Shanghai's own monthly returns give 5.5% for the same seven months. Singapore grew 4.5% in the same window and Busan 0.5% in the second quarter. On those rates the order inside the top ten would shift in two places by year end, with the tenth slot contested by three ports.

South Asia is the fastest-growing region in the 2026 returns at 11.6%, with Colombo up 11.9% in the first half and JNPT up 13.3% in January to July, each enough to move up seven places. Latin America is second at 6.9%, and Manzanillo, which fell seven places in the 2026 edition, is up 11.7% and would recover six of them. North Europe reverses as a bloc: its ranked ports grew 7.8% in 2025, but the five with half-year data grew 0.8% in 2026. Hamburg handled 4.0m teu, 3.8% fewer; Rotterdam handled 7.0m teu, 0.1% fewer, with transhipment down 20% for lack of capacity; Antwerp-Bruges was 1.5% lower. Gdansk grew 22% in the first quarter and would move up ten places.

North America is flat on the West Coast and marginally down on the East and Gulf, with Charleston 9.5% lower in the first half and the Northwest Seaport Alliance 11.3% lower in January to July, each losing four to six places. Of the ports with 2026 data, 22 would move three or more places, 17 up and five down. One port leaves the top ten, one leaves the top 30 and none enters it from below. The shape is stable at the top and in flux in the middle, where a year of double-digit growth or a lost quarter is worth five to ten places.