Singapore has maintained its lead in the Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Centre Development (ISCD) Index as the world’s top maritime centre for the eighth consecutive year, followed by London, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Dubai.
The Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Centre Development Index, published by Chinese news agency, Xinhua, and global maritime data provider, the Baltic Exchange, is an independent ranking of the performance of 43 cities offering port and shipping business services. The rankings consider factors including cargo throughput, port facilities, maritime services and business environment.
Despite a significant drop in global trade and business disruptions in 2020 due to the pandemic, the relative positions of the world’s leading maritime centres have remained unchanged. London, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Dubai were the next four strongest centres, as they were the prior year.
This year’s rankings were made on the back of the global pandemic and major disruptions to lives and businesses around the world. Notwithstanding these challenges, the huge infrastructure of people and equipment that supports the global seaborne movement of billions of tonnes of trade held strong. We commend each and every maritime centre covered in the rankings as they have all played an integral role in facilitating these trade flows,
…noted Baltic Exchange Chief Executive Mark Jackson.
Key findings
- Singapore tops the list for the eighth year followed by London, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Dubai
- Top 10 locations remain largely unchanged since 2020, despite the impact of COVID-19, and features four Asian, four European, one Middle East and one US location
- Asia occupies three of the top five spots
- Ningbo in China replaced Tokyo in the top 10
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Singapore is ranked first, based on its robust port infrastructure, a comprehensive range of maritime services and supportive government policies. Despite the pandemic, the port handled its second-highest ever container throughput at 36.9 million TEUs. According to MarineTraffic, 33,133 vessels exceeding 5000 gross tonnes (GT) arrived at the port in 2020. Singapore also retained its position as the top bunker port, registering 49.83m tonnes in 2020, its second-highest bunker sales ever and up 5% on the previous year.
As the world’s busiest container trans-shipment and bunkering hub, the Port of Singapore has done well to support global seaborne trade during this pandemic…I thank our maritime companies and unions for their strong partnership in growing Singapore’s maritime sector amidst a very challenging year,
…said Mr Chee Hong Tat, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Transport.
Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the international shipping industry has been undergoing significant changes since 2020. Facing such a big challenge, all practitioners in international shipping industry have done incredible jobs to maintain the global logistics stable and reliable and ensure epidemic prevention supplies,
…added Xu Yuchang of China Economic Information Service, a subsidiary of Xinhua.
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