China’s Yangshan Port was the world’s best-performing port last year, according to the World Bank’s fourth Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) released last week.

The CPPI, produced by the Transport Global Practice of the World Bank in collaboration with the Global Intelligence and Analytics division of S&P Global Market Intelligence, ranked the Port of Salalah in Oman in second place, the same as the previous year, while Cartagena in Colombia was in third place, up from fifth in 2022.

Tangier Mediterranean in Morocco retained its fourth place ranking, while Tanjung Pelepas in Malaysia improved one position to fifth.

Chiwan Port in China ranked sixth and Cai Mep in Vietnam was seventh. Guangzhou in China was eighth, Yokohama in Japan was ninth and rounding out the top 10 was Algeciras in Spain.

Ports that fell out of the top 10 in 2022 were Khalifa port in the United Arab Emirates, which plunged from 3rd in 2022 to 29th in 2023, while Hamad Port in Qatar dropped from 8th to 11th.

The report says the rankings were made possible by new technologies, increased digitalisation and the post-Covid willingness of industry stakeholders to work collectively toward systemwide improvements.

This combination has given analysts the ability to “measure and compare container port performance in a robust and reliable manner”.

The report was based on data for the full calendar year of 2023 and includes 405 ports around the world that had more than 24 port calls during the year.

“The CPPI is intended, as in its earlier iterations, to serve as a reference point for improvement for key stakeholders in the global economy, including national governments, port authorities and operators, development agencies, supranational organisations, various maritime interests and other public and private stakeholders in trade, logistics, and supply chain services,” World Bank global practice director transport Nicolas Peltier-Thiberge and S&P Global Market Intelligence head of global intelligence and analytics Jenny Paurys said in the report.

South African ports took out the last two spots, with Ngqura ranked 404 and Cape Town the worst at 405.

There were 55 new entrants to the CPPI 2023, and several significant movers since the CPPI 2022. One hundred ports improved their ranking, with some of the largest movers improving their ranking by more than 200 places.