Shanghai is the world’s best-connected container port, with Singapore in second place and Ningbo a distant 3rd place in the Port Liner Shipping Connectivity Index (Port LSCI) that has been developed jointly by MDS Transmodal and UNCTAD. The Port LSCI describes the relative container shipping connectivity of each port compared to Hong Kong in 2006 Q3, which was the best-connected port at the time but is now only 5th in the global league table with an index of 101. Shanghai, with an index of 132 in Q3 2019, has improved its connectivity in the last year, while Singapore’s has fallen slightly to 123 due to a decline in the number of services and the number of lines serving the port and despite an increase in the total deployed capacity and an increase in the vessel size.

Rotterdam is at the top of the European and Mediterranean container shipping connectivity league, with its Port LSCI improving from 90 to 92 over the last twelve months. By contrast Antwerp lost the top spot after its index fell from 91 to 90. Some of the Mediterranean ports, such as Barcelona, Valencia, Tanger Med and Piraeus, saw their indices rise in the last year with the deployment of additional capacity on the Far East-Mediterranean trade lane.

MDS Transmodal today announced the launch of its Port Liner Shipping Connectivity Index (Port LSCI) web application, a new online service from the UK-based maritime and freight transport consultancy which allows subscribers to understand the factors that affect a port’s rating on the index.

“We’ve developed the methodology for the Port LCSI with UNCTAD, who published the overall results by port in August”, said Antonella Teodoro, Senior Consultant at MDS Transmodal. “But we wanted to also provide the data that underlies the results so that users of the service can understand why ports’ indices are changing”.

Features and benefits of the Port LSCI include:

• Objective and transparent data to benchmark and explain changes in container port connectivity;
• FREE access to the Port LSCI for close to 1,000 container ports for Q3 2019 compared to the same quarter in the previous year;
• PREMIUM access available to the six data components underpinning the Port LSCI for each of the world’s 100 top container ports in Q3 2019 compared to the same quarter the previous year;
• Global coverage, with the six data components of the Port LSCI for the additional container ports available as a bespoke request;
• Provides the same data used to calculate the Port LSCI launched by UNCTAD in August 2019.