Nigeria fails to make top 10 world container ports list … Asia dominates top 50 list … Egypt, South Africa save Africa’s face

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An eloquent testimony that Nigeria’s
ports reforms programme may not be the roaring success the Federal Government,
and its agencies, notably the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), as well as the
ports concessionaires tout it to be, could be the glaring fact that not a
single Nigerian port posted at least 2.63 million twenty-foot equivalent units
(TEUs) in 2013 to earn a listing in the latest rankings released by the World
Shipping Council.

No Nigerian port even makes the 2013 top 50 world
container ports list in a year Chinese ports claimed top positions.

Worthy of note is the fact that there were seven Chinese ports in the
top 10 of the 2013 top 50 list, which was dominated by Asia.

Claiming nine of the 10 top port rankings,
Asian ports filled 26 of the 50 slots in the 2013 rankings.

The top 10 included Shanghai Port, China,
which posted 33.62 million TEUs; Singapore Port, Singapore, 32.6 million TEUs;
Shenzhen Port, China, 23.28 million TEUs; Hong Kong Port, China, 22.35 million
TEUs; Busan, South Korea, 17.69 million TEUs; Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, China,
17.33 million TEUs; Qingdao Port, China, 15.52 million TEUs; and Guangzhou
Harbour, China, 15.31 million TEUs.

Jebel Ali, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
(UAE), which is the Middle East’s largest container port, handled 13.64 million
TEUs in 2013.

Tianjin, China, delivered 13.01 million
TEUs to take 10th position.

Europe’s largest container port,
Rotterdam, Netherlands, ranked 11th with 11.6 million TEUs.

The
12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th,
17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st,
22nd, 23rd, 24th, and 25th positions, respectively, were claimed
by the following: Dalian, China, 10.86 million TEUs; Port Kelag, Malaysia,
10.35 million TEUs; Kaosiung, Taiwan, China, 9.94 million TEUs; Hamburg,
Germany, 9.30 million TEUs; Antwerp, Belgium, 8.59 million TEUs; Keihin Ports,
Japan, 8.37 million TEUs; Xiamen, China, 8.01 million TEUs; Los Angeles, United
States of America (USA), 7.87 million TEUs; Tanjung Relepas, Malasia, 7.63
million TEUs; Long Beach, USA, 6.73 million TEUs; Tanjung Priok, Jakarta,
Indonesia, 6.59 million TEUs; Laem Chabang, Thailand, 6.04 miliion TEUs; Ho Chi
Minh, Vietnam, 5.96 million TEUs; and Bremen/Bremerhaven, Germany, 5.84 million
TEUs.

At 26th position was
Lianyungung, China, delivered 5.49 million TEUs; and 27th position, New York-New Jersey, USA,
with 5.47 milion TEUs.

The 28th, 29th, 30th, 31st, 32nd, 33rd,
34th, 35th, 36th, 37th, 38th,
39th, 40th, 41st, and 42nd positions,
respectively, were claimed as follows: Hanshin Ports, Japan, 5.32 million TEUs;
Yingkou, China, 5.30 million TEUs; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 4.56 million TEUs;
Algerciras Bay, Spain, 4.50 million TEUs; Valencia, Spain, 4.33 million TEUs; Columbo,
Sri Lanka, 4.31 million TEUs; Jawaharial Nehru, India, 4.12 million TEUs;
Sharjah, UAE, 4.12 million TEUs; Manila, the Philippines, 3.77 million TEUs;
Felixstowe, United Kingdom (UK), 3.74 million TEUs; Santos, Brazil, 3.45
million TEUs; Ambarli, Turkey, 3.38 million TEUs; Colon, Panama, 3.36 million
TEUs; Salalah, Oman, 3.34 million TEUs; and Balboa, Panama, 3.19 million TEUs.

Redeeming the pride of the African continent at 43rd position was Port Said East, Egypt,
which delivered 3.12 million TEUs in 2013.

Gioia Tauro, Italy, delivered 3.09 million TEUs to claim 44th position; Georgia Ports, USA, 3.03
million TEUs, 45th; Tanjung Perak, Surabaya, Indonesia, 3.02
million TEUs, 46th; Metro Vancouver, Canada, 2.83 million TEUs, 47th;
Marsaxlokk, Malta, 2.75 million TEUs, 48th; and Nagoya, Japan, 2.71
million TEUs, 49th.

The
second African entry in the list was Durban, South Africa, which claimed the 50th position by posting 2.63 million TEUs.