NORTH AMERICAN port efficiency lags well behind much of the world in the global Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) developed by the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Ranked as least efficient in ship turn times was Los Angeles and Long Beach of the 370 major ports surveyed worldwide.
Other major ports, including Savannah, Seattle, and Vancouver, as well as Rotterdam, Felixstowe and Hamburg, were all among the lower rankings alongside Durban and Cape Town, which consistently ranks as the worst in the world.
Best in North America was the Port of Virginia in 23rd place globally followed by Miami (29th) and Halifax, Nova Scotia (46th).
Morocco's Tanger-Med was in 6th place was the highest ranked port in Europe and North Africa. Cartagena in Colombo (12th) ranks highest in Latin America and the Caribbean, while Port Matadi in the Democratic Republic of Congo (171st) was the best in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Savannah and Vancouver were also at the bottom coming in alongside ports of Durban and Cape Town.
But Middle East ports took four of the five top spots with three big Chinese hubs were in the top 10 in a survey that revealed that older and larger ports ranked were the least productive while new Mideast ports were among the best.
Rankings were based on vessel turn times in 2021, when there was unprecedented port congestion globally.
Top performer was Saudi's King Abdullah Port on the Red Sea, which achieved an average of 97 container moves per hour against 26 moves per hour at the main ports on North America's west coast.
Coming in second was Port Salalah in Oman, then Hamad Port in Qatar and Khalifa Port in Abu Dhabi rounding out the top five. Shanghai (Yangshan), Ningbo, and Guangzhou were in the top 10.