Major Seaports of the world

A seaport is the place on the coast or shore where there are one or more docks where ships can dock and the cargo and its passengers can move to and from the land. These are chosen to make optimal use of the navigable water and to provide easier access to land. On the basis of this they can be categorized as cargo ports and cruise ports.

Cruise ports can be further classified as

1. Home Port: This is the port where the passengers embark at the onset of the journey and disembark when the journey comes to an end. All the supplies for the cruise are also loaded from this port. All of these activities make these ports quite busy especially when a ship docs or is preparing to leave for a voyage. For example: Port of San Juan, Puerto Rico; Port of Miami, Florida, etc.

2. Port of Call: This port basically serves as an intermediate stop.

Cargo ports can be further classified as

1. Break Bulk or Bulk Ports: These ports may specialize in handling one particular cargo or may handle a variety of cargo like automobiles, fuel, grains, etc.

2. Container Ports: are the ones that handle containerized cargo.

There are a huge number of sea ports in the world. However the largest or the busiest amongst them are ranked on the basis of various criteria like number of ships, number of containers moved, weight of the cargo, value of cargo, area, etc.
1. Container Traffic On the basis of container traffic, the ten largest sea ports of the world are:
• Port Hong Kong, China
• Port Singapore, Singapore
• Port Pusan, South Korea
• Port Kaohsiung, Taiwan
• Port Rotterdam, Netherlands
• Port Shanghai, China
• Port Los Angeles, U.S.A
• Port Long Beach, U.S.A
• Port Hamburg, Germany
• Port Antwerp, Belgium

2. Cargo Volume: On the basis of cargo volume, the ten largest sea ports of the world are:
• Port Singapore, Singapore
• Port Rotterdam, Netherlands
• Port South Louisiana, U.S.A
• Port Shanghai, China
• Port Hong Kong, China
• Port Houston, U.S.A
• Port Chiba, Japan
• Port Nagoya, Japan
• Port Ulsan, South Korea
• Port Kwan yang, South Korea

One of the most famous seaports of the world is the National Historic Seaport of Baltimore which is dates back to almost 300 odd years. Some other famous cruise ports are Boston Port-U.S.A. , Norfolk Port- U.S.A., New York Port- America, Montreal Port- Canada, Philadelphia Port- U.S.A., etc.

In all there are a total of 4206 ports in the 195 countries in the world. The number of ports have increased keeping in line with the growth in sea traffic and the size of the vessels. Many of these ports serve as economy drivers for these countries and many are known for their most efficient connections across the world by means of water. The shipping industry thus forms the baseline for most part of world’s export and import.

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