The Drewry Container Port Throughput Indices are a series of volume growth/decline indices based on monthly throughput data for a sample of over 235 ports worldwide, representing over 75% of global volumes. The base point for the indices is January 2012 = 100.

After increasing slightly by 1% (1.4 points) in October 2021, the Drewry port throughput index dipped by 1.2% (1.7 points) MoM in November 2021. However, the score of 137.3 points was broadly level with the November 2020 score, and 5.6% above the level recorded in November 2019. Volume growth is under pressure across the major markets as congestion at container ports continues to cause disruptions to cargo flows. As a result the 2021 year-end outlook remains dampened due to ongoing congestion issues. The MoM downturn in Chinese port volumes will feed through into the main import markets in December 2021 and January 2022.

The two America regions were the weakest performers in November 2021, with the index declining by more than 8 points (5.2%) MoM and 1 point (0.6%) YoY for North America and 6 points (4.6%) MoM and 5 points (3.7%) YoY for Latin America. However, the respective scores both remain comfortably above the November 2019 levels of 134.4 and 115.8 for North America and Latin America respectively. Major US gateways – Los Angeles, Long Beach and New York, have witnessed increased cargo dwell times during 2021 as landside transport struggles to accommodate increased import cargo flows.

Two of the smaller regions – Africa and Oceania, posted strong MoM increase in November 2021 with a gain of close to 5 points (4.6%) and 10 points (7.2%) respectively. However, due to their small size these results did not have a material impact on the performance of the global index.

Source: Drewry