The Port of Melbourne has been ranked among the world's leading container ports. Image supplied courtesy of Port of Melbourne Corporation.

The Port of Melbourne has been ranked among the world's leading container ports, reaching top 50 status in international rankings released by Container Management magazine.

The accolade comes after Melbourne became the first port in Australia to reach the two million container milestone in 2007.

"The top 50 ranking shows Melbourne is a world-class operation - ahead of Sydney (ranked 70) and Brisbane (ranked 100)," says Victoria premier John Brumby.

"Excluding Sydney, the Port of Melbourne handles the same amount of containers as the combined total of all the other ports in Australia including Brisbane, Fremantle and Adelaide.

"Overall, the port handles around 36% of the nation's container trade - which amounts to around 6,500 containers on average each day."

He adds that the Port of Melbourne is the hub for Victoria's freight and logistics industry which generates employment for tens of thousands of Victorians and handles an average of AUD90 million in exports every day.

For the 2007 calendar year, container throughput grew to 2.188 million containers. As a result, Melbourne's ranking increased from 54 to 50 in the 2007 ranking.

In the financial year to June 2008, total container throughput grew 7.8% to 2.256 million containers, representing the port's seventeenth consecutive year of positive container growth.