Global container traffic grew by 5.2% in the first half of 2026, although the distribution of the load was significantly altered by two external factors: the anticipation of goods ahead of the planned increase in U.S. tariffs for July and the partial blockade of the Strait of Hormuz between March and June. The semi-annual ranking compiled by Alphaliner of the thirty largest container ports in the world shows the combined effect of both episodes, with a notable reshuffling of the middle positions and the exit of a reference port from the global chart.
Ningbo-Zhoushan climbed to the second position worldwide with 22.9 million TEUs, an increase of 8.8% compared to a year earlier, and surpassed Singapore, which remained at 22.7 million (+4.7%). Shanghai retained the lead with 28.7 million TEUs and a growth of 6.2%. According to Alphaliner, Ningbo's rebound is supported by the commissioning of the second phase of the Jintang terminal, which has added 17 new international routes and raised the traffic of that facility by 23.4%.
Chinese ports occupied six of the top ten positions. Shenzhen ranked fourth, Qingdao fifth, Guangzhou sixth, and Tianjin seventh, the latter ahead of Busan, which dropped to eighth place with a year-on-year decline of 0.7%. The U.S. port complex of Los Angeles-Long Beach finished the semester in ninth position with 9.9 million TEUs handled, an increase of 2.8%, supported by the advance of imports from East Asia in anticipation of the new tariff round. Port Kelang in Malaysia entered the top 10 with nearly 7.7 million TEUs and filled the gap left by Yebel Ali.
Colombo had one of the most marked increases of the semester, with an 11.9% rise to 4.4 million TEUs, supported by the redirection of transshipment traffic and the added capacity from the new international terminal CWIT (Colombo West International Terminal).
The sharpest deterioration was recorded in the Persian Gulf. Yebel Ali, Dubai's flagship terminal, experienced a 23% drop in the first quarter, with a collapse of over 90% in the second, down to 374,000 TEUs. The total volume for the semester plummeted 59.5%, from 7.77 million TEUs in the first half of 2025 to the current 3.14 million, which removed the port from the list of the thirty largest and relegated it to 32nd place. Abu Dhabi's Khalifa Seaport, which had grown 21.4% in 2025, suffered a comparable contraction. AD Ports' domestic container traffic fell 65% to 573,000 TEUs; the port cluster's revenues declined 17% to 609 million dirhams (166 million dollars), and EBITDA fell 23% to 234 million. Terminal utilization stood at 22%, and the port exited the global top 50.
Europe closed a weak semester. Rotterdam remained virtually flat at 7.02 million TEUs (-0.1%) and retained the twelfth position; Antwerp-Bruges fell by 1.5% to nearly 6.8 million, although it nominally gained a spot due to Yebel Ali's decline and ended up thirteenth. Hamburg recorded one of the worst performances in the chart, with a decline of 3.8% to 4.04 million TEUs, and lost four positions, dropping from 23rd to 27th. Alphaliner attributes the poor European performance to persistent congestion at land access points, a cooling of industrial demand, and uncertainty in trade policy.
Outside of Europe, the reconfiguration of the networks of major shipping alliances flattened transshipment volumes in Busan, while the weakness of export orders reduced activity in Kaohsiung. Hong Kong continued its structural decline, and Beibu Gulf lost market share to the free trade zone of Yangpu in Hainan.
None of the Spanish ports appear among the top thirty in the global Alphaliner ranking for the first half of 2026. The semi-annual photograph confirms the concentration of global traffic in East Asia, the sensitivity of Persian Gulf terminals to episodes of geopolitical instability, and the sustained stagnation of major European enclaves, three trends that shape the competitive framework of the ports of the Strait and the western Mediterranean.