Source: data from Containerization International.
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World's Major Container Ports, 2008-10

Container ports are reflective of the world's commercial geography particularly since they dominantly carry finished goods and parts, the world's most important ports were North American (e.g. New York) and Western European (e.g. Rotterdam). Containerization completely changed the world's commercial geography with the emergence of port locations reflecting changes in the global geography of production and consumption. This geography indicates a high level of traffic concentration around large port facilities, notably Pacific Asian ports along to Tokyo - Singapore corridor. As export oriented economic development strategies took shape, containers handled in Pacific Asian ports, notably Chinese ports, surged.

There is also an emerging geography of container ports where there is a specialization between container ports acting as gateways and container ports acting as intermediate hubs. Gateway ports command the access of large manufacturing or market regions. Hong Kong, Los Angeles and Rotterdam are notable examples of ports that command access to a vast hinterland. Intermediate hub ports (or offshore hubs) act as intermediary locations where containers are transshipped between different segments of the global maritime transport system in a manner similar to hubs in air transportation. Singapore and Dubai are among the most prominent transshipment hubs, each servicing a specific transshipment market.

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