BEIJING, July 14 (China Economic Net) - As the East Asian economies, especially China, took the lead in controlling the COVID-19 epidemic and rapidly resumed work and production, container shipping industry is expected to witness recovery in growth this year, said a report published by Center for Forecasting Science (CEFS), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

 

A press conference on “Forecasts on container throughput at global Top20 Ports for 2021” organized by CEFS is held at Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, CAS on July 14th, 2021. At the conference, the annual forecasts on container throughput and the ranking of the global Top20 ports in 2021 were released (See Table 1). 

 

“Container throughput is a gauge of a port's importance in international trade and a key barometer for global economics and trade. It is also a quantitative reference to measure the construction and development of countries, regions and cities,” Prof. Wang Shouyang, director of CEFS, pointed out the importance of predictions and analysis of container throughput.

 

According to the report, 7 out of the top 10 ports are expected to be Chinese ports, and the growth rate of China’s container throughput tends to increase considerably in 2021.

 

On the whole, the demand for container shipping services of most ports in China will increase in 2021, especially in Ningbo Zhoushan, Shenzhen and Tianjin ports, as per the report.

 

“According to the prediction of the model, 9 of the top 20 container ports in the world are expected to be Chinese ports, and the development of China’s container transport is still the focus and foundation of the stable development of the world,” said Prof. Xie Gang from Institute of Systems Science, Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, CAS.

 

Container throughput of most ports in the world will display a recovery trend except for the negative growth at the port of Kaohsiung in Asia.

 

From the view of the ranking, the report predicts that the Top20 ports in 2021 will be similar to those in 2020 except some slight changes.

 

CEFS is one of the most authoritative organizations in economic analysis and forecast.