Ambarli, Turkey’s largest container port, wasn’t on last year’s list either. It moved into 50th place on this year’s list because of Turkey’s growth as an exporter of everything from carpets and cars to pharmaceuticals and cigarettes.

Better known ports also are moving up

the list. Dubai, home of DP World, the world’s fourth-largest terminal operator in terms of 2008 volume, according to rankings by Drewry Ports (see chart, page 17), has been moving steadily up the list, conquering the No. 6 spot in 2008, after being No. 7 in 2007, No. 8 in 2006 and No. 9 in 2005. Its inexorable rise is a sign of

the port’s growing importance as a transship-
ment hub for the Persian Gulf and the Middle
East, East Africa and Central Asia.
Another sign of the times is the way
the world’s best-known ports are slipping
down the ladder. Hamburg, for example, fell
to 11th place in terms of 2008 volume from
ninth place the year before, and eighth place
in 2005. Its position among the top ports has
been steadily eroded by the rise of such ports
as Dubai, and by the move of such Chinese
ports as Ningbo-Zhoushan into seventh place
from 15th place in 2007, and Guangzhou Har-
bor into the No. 8 slot from No. 18 in 2007.
Several ports in emerging markets have
been making steady moves up the list and are
likely to jump much higher in years to come.
Ho Chi Minh City, which remains in the
No. 32 slot, its ranking last year, just completed
two container terminals and is building four
more. It will move up the list as more interna-
tional companies source apparel in Vietnam.
Other rising stars have moved down in
the middle of the list. Gioia Tauro, for exam-
ple, which seemed destined to keep rising as
a transshipment hub in the Mediterranean,
dropped into 31st place in 2008 from 26th
in 2007 as labor troubles put a damper on
traffic moving through the Italian port.
Jeddah, the biggest Saudi container port,
fell to 35th place from 28th in 2007. Salalah,
too, dropped to 37th place as the decline in
Asia-Europe cargo volume ate into Oman’s
maritime business.
Equally noteworthy is the disappearance
from the list of such well-known U. S. ports
as Seattle, Charleston and Hampton Roads,
which appear on the new list of the top 20
U. S. container ports that is making its debut
in The Journal of Commerce this year.

Only the top four U.S. container ports managed to stay on the list of the world’s top ports, although they, too, have been losing ground. Los Angeles and Long Beach, which were ranked No. 13 and No. 15, respectively, by volume in 2007, fell to No. 16 and No. 17 in terms of 2008 volume. The Port of New York and New Jersey, ranked No. 19 in 2007 volume, fell to the No. 20 spot on the 2008 list. By contrast, Georgia ports, which was not even on the list of the top 50 ports in 2006, fell to the No. 43 slot in 2008 after being No. 41 in terms of 2007 volume.

And among those top four U.S. ports, only New York-New Jersey and the Georgia ports managed to eke out increases in container volume in 2008, although they are likely to slide into volume losses this year. JOC